


Digimon: Solstice Reprieve

by KumoFuzei



Category: Digimon, Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure, Crime Fighting, Gen, Original Character(s), Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Saving the World, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2020-01-15
Packaged: 2020-03-08 18:59:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 29,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18900685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KumoFuzei/pseuds/KumoFuzei
Summary: "However, the Digital World hasn't given up on the connection yet." 600 years after the events of Adventure, the adventure, once again, evolves... Given no choice, Taran is taken into a world he doesn't quite understand wearing nothing but pyjamas. With Digimon breaching into the real world more every day, something will have to happen soon. The only question is: what?





	1. Prologue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Adventure cast's legacy is one that spans centuries, but will it be a good one?

_Tai's House, Kamakura, Japan_

_21st December 2075_

_8:37 pm_

"Kari?" He wheezed, placing his palm on his sister's knee.

She rubbed his withered hand and then placed it back onto the bed. "Don't strain yourself."

Tai shook his head, swallowing hard. "Kari." He coughed heavily.

Kari reached over and rubbed him on the back firmly. "Tai, please, the world  _needs you_  to get over this silly flu."

He laughed, leaning back in the bed and looking up at the roof. Tai smiled and she could only assume he was remembering something. "Kari, I'm old."

"You don't say; me too!" She laughed a little and then he joined in.

"What I mean is—"

Kari shook her head and whispered, "Tai, please don't."

"Kari…" Reaching over, he placed his hand on hers as the tears trickled down her cheeks. "You're not working, are you?"

Looking up, she traced her eyes over his pale blue pyjamas. She chuckled a little and rubbed his hand. "You know I'm not."

Coughing, he reached over onto the wooden table by his bed and pulled open the drawer. Shakily reaching in, he withdrew a piece of paper and placed it in her lap. "Sign it."

"Tai, what?" Scanning the paper up and down rapidly, she opened her mouth, trying to form words. She glanced at him briefly, and asked, "What is this, Tai?"

"You'll make me proud."

The tears glistening in his eyes started to make her well up too. "Tai, don't talk like that. This— this isn't—"

He smiled, like he always did. "Sign the paper, don't make me." He coughed. "All the stuff I did for you—it's only fair." The warm look in his brown eyes convinced her to hear out the request.

Kari read over the paper and noted words like: 'power transfer'; 'immediate effect'; 'politician'. Sniffling, she looked him in the eyes. "Are you sure this is what you want?"

Tai breathed deeply, smiling fondly. "I  _want_  to play football with my sister, but I  _need_  you to sign this for me, Kari. After this, it's official."

Looking at the paper, she sniffed and then giggled. "I don't have a pen."

"There's one on the bedside." Exhaling, he closed his eyes. "Table."

Kari picked up the black pen and brought it to the paper, hovering over the area she had to sign. "Tai—"

"Remember when you and Agumon robbed that vending machine?" Tai chuckled, his eyes still closed.

Kari laughed a little. "I remember you getting your spit all over my whistle."

Tai moved the breathing mask from his mouth and coughed into his hand before replacing it. He held the hand in front of his face for a second, seemingly waiting for another cough, and then showed her it. "It's good spit."

They both laughed loudly, remembering the moments they'd shared together. The birthday's, the Christmases; he was even there for the birth of her children. "Tai…"

"Sign the contract or I'll unleash my grandchildren on you." He opened his eyes and winked.

"There's still time—"

"Kari…"

Grabbing hold of his hand, she squeezed it gently and smiled. "There's still time for us to play football, Tai."

Tai opened his eyes, and looked at her for a few seconds before he started laughing.

"I'm serious," she insisted. Standing up, she walked over to the corner of the small bedroom and reached for the tattered black and white football that was on a wooden chair.

"I'm too old for this," he protested, laughing.

"Nonsense." As she bent down, she knocked a photo frame over on the table next to the chair. Sighing, she picked it up but froze when she saw the photo inside. "You—" Kari smiled, a tear of happiness rolling down her cheek, and picked up the photo. Wiping the dust off the glass, she walked back over with it in hand.

She placed the photo onto his bed and propped it up so he could see without sitting up. "You kept the photo… all this time and you still have it."

Tai looked over at the photo and a grin spread across his face. Groaning, he pushed himself up and picked up the photo. "Of course I have it." He rubbed his thumb over the glass, his eyes glistening with the memories. "Whenever I worry about something I look at this photo and." He grinned. "And it reminds me that I've fought much worse odds in the past and won."

"You'll win again, Tai." Kari gave him a stern glare. "Promise me."

"Kari, do you know the difference between courage and bravery?" An IV line swung idly by the bed, dripping fluid onto the floor.

She sighed and brushed down her ruffled pink dress; she wasn't in the mood for him to act like a big brother right now. "I'm not an idiot, Tai—"

"Bravery is when you act because of instinct. Your body moves and the mind catches up later. Courage is different because you know there's a risk and you're terrified—" Swallowing, he continued. "But you do what you have to do because otherwise people get hurt."

Kari pondered the thought for a moment. "But there's so much peace at the moment, Tai. I'm glad you turned that knucklehead football brain into something useful, but I just wish—"

"You don't need more time." He grabbed hold of her hand and placed the photo of the group at the end of their first adventure back onto the bed. "No one needs more time; time is precious so use it rather than waste it asking for more. You remember mum telling us about the people who wasted their lives asking for more wishes from the genie?"

Raising her finger to her nose to stem the flow as tears welled up in her eyes, she nodded. "I remember."

"Don't waste your life, Kari."

Kari gasped. "Is Agumon—?"

Tai half-smiled. "He's with Gennai. Kari, do you remember when we used to do prank calls?"

Kari giggled. "Your accents were great."

Tai nodded, clearly remembering. He took off the breathing mask, putting it next to him on the bed. "I've got an idea. Let's prank call 119."

"Emergency services?" Kari chuckled. "We can't do that, it's wrong. And besides, I don't even remember how to do a prank call."

"It's easy; I'll tell you what to say. Us old people need to have a little fun now and then."

Kari gripped onto the soft fabric of her dress. "Tai, please—"

Tai picked up the phone and typed in the number; he held the phone out to her and nodded. "It's ringing."

Kari timidly took the phone, watching the twinkle in his eyes. "Tai…"

"Ask them—" He coughed vehemently, covering his mouth with his hand but this time he didn't show her, wiping it onto the white sheets. "Ask them why they hung up on you and then start crying."

"Tai—" She heard the sound of the operator on the other side and saw a smile spread across Tai's face as he closed his eyes.

Standing up, she looked away from Tai's bed. "Why—? Why did you—?" She began to sob, falling onto a chair, she tried to support herself, but the wooden chair caved and she dropped onto her knees as it clattered onto the floor. She covered her mouth and tried to get the tears to come out but the pain she felt was stopping them. Behind her, she could hear silence. Not a single breath.

"Hello, madam?"

Kari dropped the phone, too weak to hold onto it, but the speaker turned on as it hit the ground.

"Madam, we don't have time for prank calls. Frankly, you should know better at your age."

Wailing, she shivered as the reality hit her and the tears finally began to spill. "He's dead."

* * *

_Izzy's underground Lab, Texas, America_

_21st December 2100_

_5:43 pm_

The alarms rang in her ears as she looked between Izzy and the metal door at the other end of the long room. "Izzy, what do we do?" she yelled above the sound of people banging on the door.

"Just one more minute!" he insisted, tapping away on the huge master computer behind her.

"What is it you're doing again?" The large metal room allowed their voices to echo.

"I'm making a safe haven in the Digital World. After that, we've done our bit, Kari. They won't be able to hurt the Digimon."

Kari turned back, tracing her eyes over the large pillar that made up the computer. Izzy was tapping away at the keyboard that jutted out of the bottom while the screen above his head showed a string of characters in green on a black background. "But Tai said—"

Izzy tapped a single key and then spun around. His fiery red hair was now grey and his features had withered with time. He'd grown a lot since their first trip to the Digital World, but he was still kind of short. Walking over the metal flooring slowly, he placed his hands on her wrinkled arms. "You did a wonderful job, Kari. The world just wasn't ready for Digimon yet."

She glanced back at the door over her shoulder as the banging grew louder. "But—"

Izzy turned her head back gently, smiling. His suit was torn and covered in dirt and his eyes betrayed the fear he was feeling but not showing. "It's just us now, Kari, we did everything we could."

Kari looked up at his stern expression. He was right. She had spent the last twenty five years of her life working hard to ensure that the two worlds could get along; however, as they had found out when Sora was killed on live television, that wasn't possible. The man she had given her position to, Jared Piston, was the head of the people who wanted to recolonize the Digital World with humans. She had failed.

Izzy pulled her close to his chest and she felt water dripping onto her head. Was he crying? "Izzy?"  
He sniffed. "I'm glad you were the eighth Digidestined."

He eventually moved away from her, pulling the purple shawl back around her shoulders, and smiled. "Run, there's a Digital Portal open to the safe haven in that storeroom." He pointed at one of the many single metal doors around the room while placing a key in her hand.

Kari felt sick. She couldn't leave him and she certainly couldn't move fast enough to escape. "I'm far too old to be running, Izzy."

Izzy laughed, a tear dropping from his chin onto her black shoes. "And I'm far too old to do favours for your idiot older brother, but look where we are." He looked at her, his eyes shaking and his lip trembling.

Clenching her fists, she whispered, "I'm sorry about—"

Izzy shook his head. "She died peacefully in the end."

She could tell by the tone of his voice he only half believed what he was saying. Kari nodded, looking over to the door and then back at him as he turned back to the computer. "I'm going."

Izzy's voice quivered as he spoke. "I'll hold them off as long as it takes, Kari. Stay safe."

Walking across the room as fast as she could, she tried to keep her balance. She missed the days of her youth when it would have been easy to run into this room and leave. A body shaking explosion broke her train of thought and she just about managed to lean onto the door as her eardrums reverberated perpetually in her head.

Opening the door without waiting too long, she walked through and turned back to see a bullet fly into Izzy's chest. He looked over at her as he fell to the ground; the life left his eyes and he whispered something. It was impossible to read his lips in all this commotion, so she closed the door and looked over to the glowing computer screen at the back of the room.

Using the shelves stacked with boxes to support herself, she made her way over. Raising the old cracked pink Digivice in her right hand, she pointed it at the screen and it began to glow. She sniffled, gripping onto the fabric of her long black dress. "I'm sorry, everyone." Holding it steady, she said, "Digiportal o—"

* * *

_Izzy's underground Lab, Texas, America_

_21st December 2100_

_5:50 pm_

That was all Kari ever managed to say before the bullet tore into her brain. Her frail body hit the ground and was cold in minutes. Walking down past her body, a man with brown hair and a handlebar moustache smiled. He knelt down beside her body and plucked the Digivice from her hands. "I think maybe you signed over your position to the wrong person, what about you?" He laughed, remembering the moment he had convinced her to do it. The acting lessons in college had certainly paid off. Standing up, he nodded to the men clad in army uniform grouped around the door. "Take the body and burn it."

As the body was taken away, he walked over to the screen, perplexed as to why the light had dimmed. Holding up the Digivice, he repeated the words mostly everyone knew. "Digiportal open." There wasn't a glimmer of activity. All his hard work to save the expanding population, had it been for naught?

"Sir, come in here," a voice called from the main room.

He sighed and walked back outside to see a news story playing on the big screen at the centre of the room. On it, the female reporter was sat with an empty chair to her left and was talking.

"-Widespread reports of people's Digimon partners being absorbed into the nearest computer. Some people have tried to counter this by hiding their partner, but it appears the Digimon no longer recognise their former companions. At the time of a crisis like this, we look to our reporter in the sky—"

Cursing, he slammed his fist on the dashboard and the screen fizzed. "Did they turn off the connection?"

"I don't know, sir. Perhaps, because she was the last Digidestined—"

Jared cursed loudly. "A thorn in our side until the very end, the damn Digimon lovers will regret this."

* * *

Over the next four hundred or so years, war ravaged Earth and the Digital World. With the Digivices turned off and the connection broken after Kari's death, all humans were ejected back into the human world and vice versa for the Digimon. Two hundred years in and the American-British alliance had allowed them to conquer the rest of the world. However, the corrupt government was slowly tearing their home apart and they began to search for ways to colonize the Digital World again. Some Digimon broke through around the same time as the humans succeeded—still set on domination—and the war began anew.

However, there was a different side to the break through. New Digidestined were born, their bodies now connected directly to the Digital World. When these new saviours slept, they became the Digimon of their dreams. These pseudo Digimon were quickly weaponized by the human forces to fight against the Digimon, whom were winning the war, until one of those new Digidestined deleted their own real partner permanently. This severed the connection again and the war slowly ended as the two worlds were separated once more. The people who had risen up to political power during the original Digidestined's time were thrown out and a new order began. They created the Royal Independent Military (RIM)—a force independent of both countries and set on solving the crime that was quickly growing. However, the Digital World hasn't given up on the connection yet.

* * *

_Downtown – Sector Two, Sabhailte, England_

_21st June 2565_

_3:15 pm_

"Hey, come back here!" Leaping over the trashcan that was launched at him, he held up his Taser gun but it was too late. They had disappeared. He turned and saw his partner pointing at something in the alley behind him. "What is it, Paul?"

He walked back down and looked into the alley to see a small sky blue ball with large eyes and a mouth full of sharp teeth. It was feasting on a lump of discarded meat from Evan's Eatery next door. "Is that…?"

His partner seemed sure now, withdrawing his RIM pager. "Yes, that's a Digimon."

Leo Harris shook his head and also withdrew his pager. "I thought-"

"The connection has been re-opened, notify Commander Neehman. I'll radio in some back-up; these things are meant to be dangerous."

Leo typed in a code and sent it to the Commander. Looking up, he saw the creature's big bug-like eyes staring at them. "It's only little…" He crept into the alley slowly. "It's probably harmless."

The creature abruptly bounced into the air and released a stream of bubbles.

Jumping back, Leo yelled, "What on earth?" He saw Paul make the chase as the creature began bouncing away and did the same. If they brought this in, it could mean a big promotion.

* * *

_RIM Commander Office, A hidden island between America and England_

_21st June 2565_

_3:17 pm_

Remus Neehman looked over the reports for the previous day. A reformed United Kingdom was slowly becoming more and more prosperous and crime was finally going down. Perhaps, one day soon, America would follow and then the two superpowers would give up control of some of the countries they ruled. The shiny metal pager on his desk beeped and broke his train of thought.

Curiously, he picked it up. No one ever sent a message to this pager. Remus looked at the code while trying to remember what it meant. "Seven, four, six…" He picked up the code book from the edge of his desk and flicked it open, scanning through the pages. "There." He gasped, dropping the pager and staggering back. "It can't be." The book fell from his shaking hand and clattered onto the floor.

The intercom beeped as he tried to regain composure. "Sir, your four o' clock is here."

Shaking his head, he calmed down a little. "I'm a little busy, Angela."

"Hey, you can't—! He's coming in anyway, sir. He said he has your permission?"

Remus looked at the metal door at the end of his office as it swung open. The room was pretty long, but even from where he was stood he could tell that his four o' clock appointment wasn't quite normal. "May I ask what your business is? I'm a little busy." Usually he only tended to meet with government officials.

The mystery man chuckled as he walked forwards slowly. "Certainly, I'm here to solve that little Digimon problem that just cropped up in Sabhailte."

"How? How did you—?"

The strange man chortled and patted his belly.

As he came closer, he almost didn't look human. He was wearing a pristine white lab coat and brown trousers but his face looked strange. "Trust me, I can help you. Give me a chance and if I'm successful then I'm hired; if not then you fire me. What do you lose?"

The strange intruder slowly stopped at the front of the desk and Remus worked out what was different. The man stood before him wasn't quite a man and he wasn't wearing trousers, or any clothes other than his lab coat. He looked similar to an ape. He had a furry body but dark skinned hairless palms, feet, face and belly. "I'm terribly sorry. The name's Simyan. Professor Simyan."

"What are you?" Remus managed to stammer.

Simyan chortled again as Remus cowered behind his desk, reaching for the panic button. "Oh this?" He lifted his arm and tugged at the hair. "Sadly, it was a science experiment gone a bit wrong. However, I do ask that you judge a book not by its cover." He withdrew a beige file from his lab coat and tossed it onto the desk. "But by its contents."

Remus looked up at the strange ape-man briefly before glancing at the file. Five letters were bolded on the front. R- O- D- A- F. "What is it?" Remus picked up the file and moved back from the desk a little to read it.

"It is a proposal for a subsection of your military forces, which will be solely focussed and trained to combat Digimon. The Retrieval of Digidestined Auxiliary Force." Simyan ran his fingers through the messy brown hair on his head, pushing it back. "It's quite the riveting read, if I do say so myself."

Remus skimmed through it and then put it back on the desk. "Give me one good reason not to press my panic button."

"Other than your security guards are sleeping and your receptionist has gone on her lunch?" Simyan looked up, seemingly pondering the thought. "The code on your pager denotes that a Digimon has broken through, correct?" Simyan waited for an answer but Remus refused to give one. This man—or beast—knew too much already. "You don't have to answer; I read that code book the other day. My memory never falters." Remus felt his face drop and a smirk spread across the ape's face. "Now, I know that Sabhailte is currently in danger and your officers aren't equipped to deal with the threat. I can give some of those officers information that will allow them to prevent the inevitable anarchy."

Remus's interest was piqued. If this ape-man already knew so much, what harm was it to trust him? If he was wrong, it would be easy to kill him and dispose of the body. If not, perhaps this RODAF idea—whatever it was—wasn't such a bad one. "You have one day; I'll fly you out to meet the two best men I have on the street." Remus held up a set of plane keys. "I presume you know how to fly too?"

Simyan smirked. "Unfortunately not, but I have a pilot in mind."

* * *

_Downtown – Sector Two, Sabhailte, England_

_21st June 2565_

_8:20 pm_

Simyan climbed out of the helicopter, looking at the two men stood shaking before him. "I presume you two lost the Digimon?" It was to be expected.

They kept their guns pointed at him. "Who- What are you?"

"Your commander told you, didn't he? I'm Professor Simyan." He gestured to the cockpit as a middle-aged man with red hair clambered out, pointing a rifle at one of them and his handgun at the other. "And this is my associate, Casper Fergusson." Simyan reached and slowly touched the end of their two guns. "We've all got toys." He pushed them down slightly, and winked. "So, we can play cowboys, or we can go catch a Digimon and make Mr Neehman proud. It's up to you which you prefer."

They looked at each other and then all three males slowly lowered their weapons. "Brilliant." Simyan withdrew a black box from his pocket and tapped the screen. "The Digimon is nearby."

One of them moved next to him, trying to grab the box. "What's that?"

Simyan slapped his hand. "We look with our eyes, Paul McGreggor." He smirked as he saw the man's confusion. It was always fun to do this. "I know both of your names, and the rest of your lives too; it was only smart to brush up on you two before I met you."

Simyan pointed straight down the street at the raised roundabout. "There it is."

Leo moved to run but Simyan thumped him in the shoulder, sending him onto the ground. "What the hell?" Leo hissed through the pain. The officer was clearly shocked by Simyan's strength, yet again it was to be expected. Normal scientists didn't usually have much time for the gym.

Simyan walked forwards slowly, pocketing the black box and withdrawing a net. "We do things my way, boys. Success is seized quickest using the best thought out plan of action."

Paul helped his partner up and kept his eyes on Simyan. He seemed cautious but angry, stepping towards Simyan slightly. "You can't just hit a member of the RIM."

Simyan laughed a little but tried to keep quiet. "A member of RODAF can do as they please. They are not bound by this world's laws."

They looked between each other and then Leo stood forwards. "What is RODAF?"

"Something you're welcome to join if you have a good aim with that Taser gun of yours."

Leo looked over the Taser with confusion. "Shouldn't I shoot it with my handgun?"

Simyan shrugged. "If you would prefer to anger the Digimon, causing it to Digivolve, be my guest."

Paul placed his hand on Leo's shoulder and shook his head. "I heard about that Digivolve stuff. It was the reason they had to use pseudo Digimon in the Valiant War."

Leo growled, walking closer to the roundabout. "Fine, I'll shoot it with this." He held up the Taser gun while looking back at them. Leo turned back to the roundabout and gritted his teeth. "This better work."

"If you hit it exactly, it will. However, if you clip the Digimon or miss we'll be in trouble. So, try not to screw it up." Simyan patted him on the shoulder. "No pressure." He moved backwards as Leo aimed.

Paul smiled confidently. "He's the best in RIM; with his shooting skills and my knack for solving crimes we're a great team—"

"I'll cut you off there, Paul." Casper patted him on the shoulder, a cigarette hanging from his lip. "He's young; he's got a long way to go."

With a buzzing of electricity, they all turned to see Leo grinning as he ran towards the roundabout. "Quickly, Casper." Simyan handed him the net and Casper ran over. The older male managed to toss the net over and heave it, and the contents, onto his back before Leo could get a clean shot with his handgun.

"What gives?" Leo asked, gritting his teeth as he pointed his gun at Casper.

"We capture Digimon and return them to their world, Mr Harris." Simyan walked over slowly but paused as the device in his pocket bleeped.

"Put it down, kiddo." Casper tossed his cigarette into the air, flicked a switch on Leo's gun with uncanny agility and then caught the cigarette as the cartridge fell out.

"There's one in the chamber." Leo locked eyes with the older man.

"You need at least two to scare me, kiddo." He laughed, finishing the rest of the cigarette in one long drag before tossing it to the ground, and walked back over to Simyan. The sound of Leo grumbling was mixed with Casper's slow footsteps across the road.

Paul looked over Simyan's shoulder as the ape-man watched the black box. "Another Digimon?"

"Not quite, we need to move." Simyan burst off into a run that rivalled a cheetah, leaving the others in the dust. He paused up ahead and checked the box again. Looking back at the others, he beckoned. "Do not fall behind. The dark is a scary place."

Leo picked up the cartridge and slipped it back into his gun. "Like I'm afraid of the dark."

Paul pointed in the direction everyone was running. "Are you afraid of ghosts?"

Leo saw a white light radiating into sky. It was a thin beam already, shrinking all the while. "No, but I  _am_  afraid of that."

* * *

_Central – Sector One, Sabhailte, England_

_21st June 2565_

_8:37 pm_

Simyan stopped as he reached the house where the slender light was emanating from. "A new Digidestined already…" He looked to the left to see a large black bird with golden tipped feathers circling in the sky. "And their Reprieve takes the form of Lithemon, interesting." He bounded into the air and gripped onto the windowsill from one of the second floor bedrooms. Swinging himself up, he withdrew a blob of white gum and slipped it into the window's lock. He waited a few seconds before he twisted it and pulled the window open.

He glanced down at the bed to see a girl with long brown hair and a serene expression. Scrutinizing the toy filled bedroom, he eventually spotted a notebook with a name embossed on the front. "Faye?" he whispered as he touched her arm gently. It would be a shock waking up to Simyan for anyone but he needed to get her out of here quickly. "Faye." He pushed harder and she groaned, waking up slowly.

"He wants to marry me, mum, I need more time." She opened her big brown eyes but immediately leapt up and backed into the corner.

Peering out the window, Simyan saw the oversized Lithemon had vanished. It was definitely this girl. He looked back over at her as she calmed down, moving closer curiously. "Faye, you need to go to sleep again. This is just a dream." Simyan leapt back out of the window and closed it behind himself. He bounded onto the roof, spotting his comrades arrival. Waving to them, he withdrew a walkie-talkie. "Casper, you all need to watch the sky. If a big black bird appears then we definitely have the right girl."

He waited for Faye to finally settle down, listening closely in the darkness as her breathing became shallow. His keen hearing could just barely make out her breath now; she had to be asleep or at least pretending. "Keep an eye out," Simyan whispered as he slipped back down and through the window. Inside, she appeared to be asleep and Lithemon had definitely vanished when he woke her. He spoke softly into the radio. "Anything?"

The reply crackled in his ear. "Nothing, I think something's wrong."

Simyan pondered it for a moment. "Perhaps the connection never recovered. With such a damaged connection only a single Reprieve is possible." He checked his phone and selected the calendar. "June the twenty first. It appears that the solstice is still the time when this connection develops easiest." Picking her up gently, he leapt back out of the window, landing softly on the ground.

Leo pointed his gun. "Who's the girl? You can't kidnap civilians."

Simyan sighed. He wasn't entirely sure this 'act first, think second' guy was cut out for RODAF. "She is a chosen one. In time, she will receive a Digital partner."

Paul stammered, "B- but-"

"I thought it too, Mister McGreggor. However, it seems the Digital World has established one last connection with the human population. In the interest of keeping that connection alive, I plan to look after this girl and raise her at our new base."

Leo looked to Paul and then back at Simyan. "Base?"

Paul raised an eyebrow. "Ours?"

Simyan smirked as he saw their increased interest. "Casper will be flying us there now. He financed the construction until the RIM was ready to take over. An island in the sky – Home Base."

* * *

_Home Base, Somewhere between the UK and America_

_29th May 2575_

_8:30 am_

Simyan looked over the new head of RODAF. Unfortunately, RIM had decided that Simyan's duties should be solely focussed on combatting Digimon and the administration and day to day running should be done by someone else. The man chosen for the job, Charles Kayran, was an obviously dangerous man. It was baffling that he had ever been hired but Simyan resolved that he would keep an eye on him. Kayran's short blond hair flapped about in the breeze as he spoke to a grey-haired Remus Neehman.

Simyan walked over slowly and listened to the conversation while approaching.

"-So, it is with great pleasure that I bestow upon you this position."

Kayran smirked, glancing briefly at Simyan. "The pleasure's mine."

"Remus, it's been a while." Simyan held out a hand as he stopped.

Remus laughed and shook it. "I'm sorry I'm adding someone new to your family, but times change, Simyan."

"It's no matter, I'm sure we'll get on." Simyan looked at the cold, army-instilled look in Kayran's eyes and knew that was a lie. "Leave him with me; I'll show him his office."

Kayran smiled a toothy grin. It was as false as the rest of him. "An office? For me? You shouldn't have." He chuckled. It sounded like someone being held at gunpoint and forced to laugh.

Simyan nodded to Remus as the RIM commander walked over to his helicopter on the nearby helipad.

Waiting until he was out of earshot before looking back at Kayran, Simyan breathed deeply. He had to play this carefully; Kayran was a risky man. "The office complex is this way." Simyan walked towards the nearest building. Turning on the voice recorder in his pocket, he whispered, "Note to self: do not allow Kayran's actions to fall under the radar."

* * *

_Lower Office Block, Home Base_

_1st January 2579_

_11:49 pm_

Kayran looked up at the large screen, smirking. "And the spores will be capable of inciting insanity, and eventually death, in a Digimon?"

The scientist on his right nodded sheepishly, their glasses almost falling off their long nose. "Y— Yes, s— s— sir."

"Excellent and you know if you tell Simyan what will happen to you?"

The gulp was so loud it made Kayran smile with pleasure. "I die?"

"Indeed." He patted the scientist on the head and turned around to face one of the new recruits to RODAF.

It was the bright young spark, Bella DeLouge. Her curvaceous body, long blonde hair and twinkling blue eyes were her greatest disguise. He had hired especially for her cunning, vicious killing record. She didn't have a Digimon partner, but that played to his favour. "Bella, I need you all to begin squashing the resistance against us. If you cannot handle it alone you may take the others. I want it gone ASAP or you're gone, capisce?"

"Certainly, Lord Kayran." She withdrew one of her two signature katanas, licking the cold blade. She holstered it quickly and then pursed her lips. "Still sharp. Where do you want me?"

* * *

_"Downtown Sabhailte, Sector three."_

_Debriefing Room, Home Base_

_12th March 2593_

_7:32 pm_

"Four years with us already, eh, King?" Casper asked. The grey moustache of his mentor wiggled about as he smiled proudly.

"So, me and Moonmon can come with you guys today?" King asked, looking up at the older man and grinning.

"Ask Leo, I'm not in charge today." Casper patted his belly and leaned in close, his usual cigarette breath mixed with strong alcohol. "I've had a few too many to drink." He winked and then started laughing.

King looked to the middle-aged man with shaggy blond hair. Leo half-smiled, shining his gun, and pointed to Faye. "Sorry, kiddo."

King looked hopefully to Faye; if it wasn't her then he might as well give up. "Well?"  
The big eyed brunette looked down slightly. Despite the fact King was only twelve, he was nearly her height. "If you feel up to it, me and Uliosmon are happy to have you along."

The small white cloud next to her with half-open eyes narrowed them further. "Faye, be careful." His tone was light but chiding. Faye did have a habit of being too trusting.

"It's fine, Uliosmon. Isn't it, King?" She laughed and ruffled King's short black locks.

King nodded eagerly as Paul placed a hand on his shoulder. "Yeah, we'll be fine."

* * *

_Downtown – Sector Three (Abandoned Warehouse), Sabhailte, England_

_25th December 2595_

_1:30 am_

Faye's death that day continued to haunt King for the rest of his life and the next few were probably some of the worst. Bella DeLouge died shortly afterwards in a fire, leaving an all-male team behind. Paul took the next hit; he sacrificed himself after Parricidium caught them in a trap. King hadn't known Paul as well as some of the others, but watching Leo become a shadow of himself was enough of a tribute to the brave fallen RODAF agent. Uliosmon slowly became insane and ended up storming the base of one of the key members of the resistance against RODAF. They never saw the—usually cautious—Digimon again.

Perhaps, though, Leo's death was the most painful King had felt. Maybe it was because he was the latest on a heap of pain, or maybe because Leo saved him. King wasn't sure exactly what made him feel the way he did, but when he watched Leo stand and fight against a small army he felt a mix of emotions. There was the pride in one of his mentors, the shame he felt for leaving when he was told, and the sadness and anger that lingered afterwards.

"King, are you okay?" Casper asked quietly as they sat watching the meeting of the resistance group Future Fighters from the rafters.

King shook his head, regaining his focus. "I'm fine; Moonmon?"

His partner, the little blue cat nodded. "I'm good as long as I'm with you, King."

"I miss them too, son, but we are getting some new recruits soon. I feel it in my bones." He patted King lightly on the back. "We got that new pilot last year, remember?"

King laughed quietly. "Thanks, Casper. I promise neither of us will die."

Casper smiled lightly. "Focus on the mission first." He pointed below but the meeting had paused.

Casper withdrew the rifle from his back but paused as he heard footsteps. He turned to the right and saw a soldier and then to the left to see another. "King—"

"We've got intruders!" one announced.

"Casper, do we fight?" King looked about, readying his fists.

"King…" Casper clenched his teeth. "Leave now. You're just a kid and you'll only hold me back."

"But… there's too many. I can't leave you!" King protested, stamping his feet.

"Stop right there!" The soldiers on the rafters had increased twofold.

Casper bent King over and placed a handgun on his back. Pulling the trigger twice he took out the two on the right and used his rifle to take out one of the two on the left. The other was still alive, and appeared to have a Digimon. It looked like a small green dog, possibly crossed with something more angular.

Withdrawing an electric net, he tossed it at them but watched with amazement as the Digimon burst straight through, energy surrounding it as it landed gently in front of him and then pounced for his face. Casper struck it with the butt of his gun, following up with a digitally charged shot from his handgun to finish it off. Spinning his rifle around once, he aimed and fired to mop up the human counterpart of Relecmon.

Breathing a sigh of relief, he looked at King with fury in his eyes. "King, leave now. I've left RODAF from this moment on so you're associating with an enemy by being here."

"B— but." King felt himself become teary. This was awful, how on earth could Casper expect him to leave? "You're my mentor, my friend—"

"RODAF agents don't have friends." He closed his eyes and grabbed King by the scruff of his neck. "Now get out of my life!" Grunting, he launched King through the skylight above them.

King felt heartbroken as he crashed through the glass and landed on the roof outside. Clambering up while being careful not to let the broken glass touch his skin, he moved for the—now open—skylight but suddenly Moonmon flew through, flying over his head. She was hurt. "Did Casper…?" he whispered, his voice cracking as he picked up his semi-conscious partner. Looking at the helicopter and listening to the commotion, he bit his tongue to force a decision while tears trickled down his cheeks. "Dammit!"

He ran to the helicopter, climbing in and slamming the door. "Go!"

* * *

_Downtown – Sector Three (Abandoned Warehouse), Sabhailte, England_

_25th December 2595_

_1:39 am_

"That was a harsh way to get rid of your grandson, old man." The voice was clearly laced with malice.

Casper looked over and shook his head, withdrawing a cigarette and placing it into his lips. "You wouldn't understand." He flicked his lighter near the cigarette end, lighting it and taking a long drag.

The man, in a black cloak, which covered most of his body, was barely visible beneath the black top hat and sunglasses. He pushed out his bottom lip, cocking his head to the side and then pulled the trigger of the revolver in his left hand. "Understand this."

Casper expected a rush of pain, he had been shot before so he knew what to expect but instead he saw data pixels in the corner of his eye.

Spotting Moonmon in pain, he tossed the Digimon through the skylight and then moved back away from the man. Moonmon wouldn't have survived another shot from that gun at this close range. "You're the head of Future Fighters?"

"I am; it's a shame the head of RODAF hasn't come to meet me but you  _were_  one of the founding members. It seems apt that an organisation as powerful as mine can take out the last founding member." He opened the revolver, placing a single bullet inside. "I won't miss."

Casper laughed. "You need more than one to scare me."

The man smirked. "We'll see. They're all proud until the barrel of a gun is all they can see."

Casper pulled the cigarette away from his lips, exhaling. "The pain we both cause to innocent people is very different; I do it to see the look of joy in a child's eyes when they are able to live safely with a Digimon. What about you?"

"I cause pain to stop the bad guys, the same as any superhero." He flipped the revolver around until it cocked and then pointed it.

Casper smirked. "When you're older, you'll understand. There are more important things in life than right or wrong." Casper closed his eyes and dropped the cigarette.

"Die."

The bullet pierced his brain and cut off everything in that moment. There was no tunnel of light, only the sleep he had been yearning for.

* * *

_Home Base_

_24th March 2599_

_8:37 am_

She looked up, her eyes wide with amazement. Of course, she was still sceptical of the offer but this was a pretty amazing home. Ahead, she saw a tall black man sat against one of the trees. Walking over curiously, she kept her wits about her. "Do I need to do anything now I'm here?"

He looked up, the shade covering half of his face. "First day?"

"And?" She tensed up.

He stood up, wrapping his arms around her. "Welcome to the family."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a jumpy first chapter but it is the prologue. If you stuck with it all the way through, please let me know what you thought! :)


	2. A Rude Introduction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taran's house is ransacked by a mysterious creature and even more mysterious people arrive too. Just what is happening with the world?

A thick layer of white, powdery snow laced the picturesque cul-de-sac. In each of the houses children excitedly awaited midnight; that was when Christmas truly began. Snow fell outside in every direction like people during rush hour. Trees were bare and painted a beautiful white. Every single house was covered with mesmerising snowfall.

For one house, however, there was more action that night than expected.

The house itself was nothing remarkable. The living room had an extravagantly dressed Christmas tree and under the pine branches sat numerous coloured parcels. Most of them were there purely for decoration so that the family had a 'traditional Christmas'.

The pitter-patter of little feet littered the wooden staircase as the children eagerly awaited Christmas Day. The hallway was unlit, and they sat in darkness, hoping their parents wouldn't realise they were creeping down earlier than they were supposed to. Unfortunately, the dark purple rug running the length of the staircase muffled their steps but didn't silence them. "Go to bed!" their father shouted angrily, even as his wife snuggled into his chest. The fireplace crackled and spat calmly as the two cuddled.

Eventually, after an hour, all but one of the children had gone to bed. Taran alone remained on the staircase, keenly waiting for the moment when his parents would fall asleep like they did every year before they went to bed. It didn't take long until they finally fell asleep, but by then the fire had become smouldering embers. The whole house began to get colder. He shivered, wearing only his thin green pyjamas, but now he knew he could sneak a quick peek at his presents before his parents woke up and went to bed. He crept down the stairs, careful to tread only on the rug, and held his breath when he stepped off the stairs and slipped into the living room.

The glass panes in the doors shuddered loudly as he closed them, and he clenched his eyes shut, waiting to be shouted at by his father. Luckily, it hadn't woken them. He opened his eyes and glanced upon the lavishly wrapped presents, some of which had sparkly wrapping paper. Others had big ribbons which pushed against the branches of the tree. A large grin began to spread across his youthful face as he stared at them in pure astonishment. He had turned eight this year and his parents had bought him more presents than ever before. Breathing in deeply, he held the single breath while creeping forwards on nothing but the tips of his toes. He didn't dare glance at his parents for fear that just him looking at them would wake them up from their slumbers. Bending down slowly, he plucked the first present he spotted from the pile. It was a small crimson box with a golden ribbon and a small white tag, which hung limply off it. Lifting the tag slowly, he turned it over and read it aloud slowly and quietly, "To Taran, I just know that this will help." He paused and then grinned. Getting onto his feet, he glanced at his parents and then held the present close to his chest, spinning around in a silly little dance of glee.

Calming down, he tiptoed across the carpet and towards the doors but as he touched the handle he felt it, and the ground, begin to shudder. He turned around, curious as to what was happening. A loud crash erupted in his ears, causing them to ring, as smoke blinded his other senses. He coughed heavily, trying to waft away the smoke and work out what was going on and as the dust began to clear he could just make out that his living room was now missing a wall. Taran ran away and covered his eyes. Whatever had caused the wall to collapse was in the middle of his living room. Warily, he opened his eyes and saw the large chunk of green rubble moving slightly. As he looked closely, he started to make out what it was. It had long rabbit ears and a cute rabbit face but the rest of it was far from cute. Its ears were as big as Taran himself, and its head was as big as the coffee table, not to mention that its arms and legs were bigger than his parents. Taran surmised that, whatever it was, it looked like a hyped-up rabbit ready for Armageddon.

But more surprising was that someone was  _standing_ on the monster. It was a girl, maybe fourteen years old, and she had a fierce look of determination despite the fact she had just smashed through a wall. Her shoulder length hair was a bright colour of green but apart from that she seemed to be wearing normal teenager's clothes: a t-shirt and jeans. The girl spun to face the young boy. "Welcome to the team, Taran." She grinned in a friendly way to him as the rabbit warrior beneath her moved. It got to its feet without causing any more damage to the house and Taran noticed it had a large silver pole attached to its back, presumably as a weapon. The large animal grabbed the pole from its holster and held it out horizontally in front of itself. A huge black knight burst from the foreboding darkness and snowstorm outside—which was dying down—and smacked the rabbit warrior backwards and further into the living room. Taran quivered in fear when he saw the knight, stepping slowly backwards and away until he fell onto his bum.

"Hey, you! I'm not gonna let you harm this dude!" A pubescent male voice roared from somewhere nearby. Taran was quickly becoming confused as to why his house was the centre of what seemed to be an interplanetary dispute.

The girl turned her head quickly and looked to the left of the gaping hole in the house. She groaned exasperatedly as she made sense of the voice. "Leon? What you doing here? Professor hasn't given you a Mega Spark," she shouted. The two large creatures clashed again with the rabbit using his metal pole to block the knight's blade. Taran figured that whoever the other person was would also have a big machine that would smash the house even more so he backed further away and hid near the sofa with his parents, who were somehow still asleep.

A sharp reply was heard from the boy. "Like I need that to take care of this dude. Do you know who I am?"

The voice sounded confident but Taran wondered how anything could deal with something that made him feel so scared. The fear was multiplied when the rabbit was knocked to the floor again and the knight raised his blade menacingly.

Annoyed, the girl turned away from the boy and sighed. "ArmonTalmon, go!"

The beast flew to its feet and charged at the other creature, smacking it with the large pole that was in its hand. The pole hit the black knight in the head and sent the colossal creature elsewhere into the darkness.

Before the big robot could do anything else a young boy ran past with a luminous orb floating next to him. "Oobmon—when you're ready, buddy," he shouted. The orb hovered for a while, seemingly hesitant and then flew off into the darkness.

The boy's clothes were difficult to make out but it was clear that he wore a blue hat which allowed a small tuft of blonde hair to poke out of the front, and what looked like blue and white skiing gear. He also seemed to be carrying a blue snowboard under his right arm—despite the fact there was nowhere to snowboard in the area. He looked a little younger than the girl and Taran couldn't work out why these two teenagers were fighting monsters that were bigger than his house was.

"So, was the Himalayas fun?" the girl asked, almost in a teasing manner.

"Shut up, Aleena," he called back bluntly with an outward puff of air, followed by more puffs, as he tried to regain his breath.

She jumped off the robot's shoulder as glistening orbs flew outwards from it and it began to shrink. By now, Taran was more than terrified and tried to run back upstairs but the scary girl shot him a sharp glare so he felt he had to stay. He could hear his brothers and sisters panicking upstairs and was waiting for his parents to wake up and save them all. He wanted to wake them but moving could get him killed. The orbs stopped emitting from the shrinking rabbit to reveal that its ears were now only as long as his arms and it had a small patch of pale brown on its stomach but was otherwise covered in cream fur. It almost looked like a hare.

"Gosh dammit, I'm just me again. I was enjoying that!" Its voice was cute in a way that befitted its new appearance.

"This is a mission, not a fairground, Tal." Aleena replied quickly.

She was calling it something different now and Taran couldn't work out why. Maybe they had teleported this creature down to play with him.

"Yeah, yeah. So what are we going to do with Oobmon?" He indicated the current location of the fallen Digimon by pointing with his paw.

"Your partner got totalled, Leon." This Aleena girl could be a real meanie.

"Wait, what?" Leon's face dropped.

The boy from earlier began to look around. "Oobmon," he shouted desperately. He seemed to spot something and charged off into the darkness.

The girl watched him go and then turned to look at Taran. "Kid, it's time to go."

Taran stared back at her blankly in fear before he found himself beginning to walk towards her tentatively. He was afraid to go near her but he was also terrified to disobey.

"Oh, and bring that with you," she added with a nod to the small parcel in Taran's arms.

Taran hadn't even realised he was still holding it so he nodded slowly and walked further towards her. Suddenly, he heard movement from his parents and turned to see that they had finally awoken to see all of the commotion that had gone on and the aftermath that had destroyed their house.

"N- No... We don't want him to go!" his mother exclaimed fearfully, bursting to her feet as she realised what was occurring. His dad moved next to Taran and grabbed his hand and forcefully took him back next to his mother, who was barely able to stand due to how much she was shaking.

Calmly, Aleena explained herself. "We have to take him. Sorry, but it's not safe for him here." She reached into her pocket and withdrew a white powder. It had the consistency of flour and sparkled slightly. "Goodbye." Taran's parents shook their heads in disbelief. Aleena smiled sweetly and blew the white powder at his family. It floated through the air like a thick mist, and as soon as it reached the family, they fell onto the floor with a thump.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At this point, I'd like to thank Py687 and Aveza for beta-reading the first few chapters of this and everyone else who also helped out. This wouldn't exist without you guys, so thanks.
> 
> Bit of a short first chapter, I know.


	3. The Team

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taran's been kidnapped!!

The sound of the gunshots as she pulled the trigger pierced the air like broken glass.

"Aleena?" a voice called from behind.

Aleena lowered her gun, opening her other eye. She turned around. "Yeah?"

"You've been called for a mission."

Aleena sighed, flicking the safety onto the handgun. "I never get to relax around here," she grumbled, walking past the young red-haired female in a black pantsuit. She placed her gun into the woman's hands and walked over to the door.

Glancing over at the cardboard targets, the newbie Base Agent called after her, "Do you always aim for the middle of the forehead or is it just luck?"  
"I aim. It's my favourite spot." Aleena pulled the door open and walked out.

Walking out of the underground training area, Aleena looked around outside; it was dusk already and everyone was walking into the rest complex to her left. She sighed and walked towards the debriefing room. That's where he'd be waiting.

~.~.~

When she walked in, she saw a familiar face that made her feel contempt. "Aleena!" it exclaimed loudly and cheerfully.

"Rori," she replied with a tone of derision. "You know where Tal is?"

"Tal's getting your Taser gun back from Professor Simyan," she replied in a sprightly manner, skipping over with her red curls bouncing up and down as she moved.

"I guess I'll go find him, then." Aleena sighed, turning to leave.

"I'll come too!" she chirped.

Aleena groaned. "Do whatever you want."

"Okay, I'm coming!"

Aleena slammed the door behind her to show her disagreement with the situation but she knew it wouldn't stop the red haired girl from following her.

Quickly, Aleena walked across the floating metal island. She was heading towards the grassy area in the middle, which had various trees and flowers growing. It was a sharp contrast to the metal and mortar that the rest of Home Base was made of. She heard Rori's footsteps behind her and turned around to see the girl with her partner—a Digimon that looked a lot like a chubby grass fairy.

"You gonna follow me inside?" She groaned again.

"Yeah," Rori replied happily, running to catch up. "We leave for our mission at the same time and I need stuff, too."

"Please say you're not taking the same ride," Aleena grumbled as the redhead stopped and began to walk next to her.

"I don't think so. It's a different place." Rori placed her finger to her lips, looking up at the sky. "But I could ask if we could." Her lime green eyes lit up like fireworks as she imagined her idea coming to fruition.

"Please don't."

Aleena walked out into the middle of the verdant area and knelt down in the various flora. Placing her hand on the ground and twisting it, she looked down directly at where her hand was. "Operative Aleena."

"It's so pretty here," Rori said, her voice almost detached from her body as she spun around with her eyes wide.

Aleena sighed, hearing Rori's ramblings behind her, as a small light came out of the ground and scanned her eyes. There was a pause and a click after the light vanished.

" _Unlocked."_

She waited for the handle to appear and pulled it to lift the hatch. A dark tunnel loomed below with no means to get down. "Don't follow me," Aleena said, her tone both tired and dismissive.

"I'll be down in a minute!" Rori waved, bouncing up and down as Aleena dropped into the hole and began to slide downwards.

The entrance quickly turned nearly horizontal as she continued to slip downwards until a light appeared at the end and she flew out and onto a black mat. A distinct smell of crisps and chocolate filled the squalid air. It was nauseating. She stretched her muscles, standing up and walking out of the room that only consisted of the black mattress and a small area of stone ground. After she passed through the dark hallway, she was in the laboratory. "Simyan, where's Talmon?"

"We are in the main laboratory; reconfiguring your gun," a familiar voice called back. He chose his words carefully, articulating every syllable. His vocabulary led Aleena to think he was probably like a grandfather would be, if she had ever had one.

"Coming!" She walked out into the room.

It was a very strange room to be in. There was a blue glow all over from the large holographic computer screen that covered the entire eastern wall. The ceiling was also a lot higher than the previous room and almost reached the ground above. Her footsteps echoed as she walked down the stone steps to where her partner and Professor Simyan waited. She looked over to the right of the stairs and saw the long table covered in papers and empty packets of crisps and pizza boxes.

"Aleena," Professor Simyan called, his voice ravaged by time and rasping slightly. He turned around in his white cloak to look at her. His ape/human hybrid appearance was a strange one but it had become something she was accustomed to. Her partner was on the other side of the table, picking up her gun with his paws and carrying her utility belt with one of his ears.

"Good to see you again, Simyan." She sniffed the air as she walked over. "You need to clean up in here." The smell was particularly strong as she got closer to him.

"My salary is far too high to worry about such trivialities," Simyan said, laughing and rubbing his hairy stomach. "Now, I have perfected the Mega Spark for your mission. It should allow you to reach and maintain a level of power pertaining to the most evolved Digital form for a short period." He produced a small yellow tablet with a blue band across the middle and held it towards her. She wasn't sure what it was but she figured it worked a lot like an Ultimate Spark but better.

"Hey, what's that?" Rori yelled excitedly, running down the stairs.

Aleena sighed and grabbed the tablet. "Thanks." She pocketed the tablet and attached the Taser gun to her utility belt.

"Hello, Rori!" Professor Simyan reached into his pocket. "I have completed the creation of your Transporter Orbs." He produced a handful of small yellow balls. "They are optimized to work well in the next few weeks."

"Thanks, Simmy," she said, her eyes sparkling as she rushed over with her partner in tow.

"I also have a Champion Spark for Orchidemon." His eyes seemed a little weary. Aleena scanned his appearance, his white lab coat was looking unusually unkempt as he produced the plain yellow tablet for Rori.

"Cool," Rori exclaimed, admiring the tablet with her eyes before plucking it from the hairy hands of the Professor.

"Mission Screen, summon," Simyan announced, waving his hand. One of the screens on the left wall detached and flew over in front of him, connected to its origin by nothing but a wire. "Aleena, this is your target." Simyan produced an image of a house in a snowy area. The screen zoomed in through a window and then refocused to produce an image of a young brunet. "Retrieve him  _alive_."

"Easy enough." Aleena cocked her gun and looked down the sight.

"Rori, you have to go return a few Digimon in Steam city to the Digital World." The screen changed to an image of a coal-powered town with numerous mines and factories. "They are all unidentified, so it is up to you to be careful and attract minimal attention whatever the opponent."

"Got it," Rori said with a wink that denoted her playful approach to missions.

"We're off." Aleena waved as she left the room.

"Wait up!" Rori called, chasing after her.

"Be careful!" Simyan opened a packet of crisps and plucked one out. "You never know what you will see," he muttered pensively as he chewed on the crisp and brushed the screen away.

~.~.~

Aleena walked out onto the grass and looked down at her partner. "I think there is more to this mission than we've been told, Tal." She looked at the Mega Spark, turning it around in her fingers.

"Indeed."

Placing the tablet into her utility built, she focussed herself. "We're taking an EDAM down." She walked over to the edge of Home Base.

"You're in a rush?" Tal watched as she produced a small black capsule from her belt and tossed it onto the ground in front of them.

Aleena turned back, smirking. "The EDAM only has room for two."

Rori's shrill voice resounded from behind them. "Aren't you taking the helicopters?"

"EDAM, reveal." Aleena watched as the tablet grew in size to reveal that it was a little like a submarine with a rocket engine attached to the back. She placed her hand on the translucent glass and it opened to reveal the two leather seats directly behind each other inside. Talmon got in first, at the back, and then Aleena climbed into the driver's seat.

"I'll take one too!" Rori rushed over.

"No." Aleena sighed as she pulled the glass closed and pressed the accelerate button on her dashboard.

The vehicle shuddered for a second and then flew forwards, rocketing off the edge of Home Base and turning diagonal. "Start up the map and give me directions," Aleena ordered as they flew down through the clouds.

"It's loading..." Talmon pulled up a holographic map on the back of her seat. "You're on course to hit the town of Acquina."

"That's where we have to go?"

"Affirmative."

"You aimed us at the port?"

"Adjusting course now," Talmon produced a set of instructions on her dashboard for her to hit the water instead of the ground.

Aleena quickly adjusted their path with the joystick between her legs. "How long until impact?"  
"Twenty seconds. There's a UDD below. Level seems to be Mega and he's in our objective vicinity."

"I knew he gave us that Spark for a reason," Aleena grumbled, grimacing as the water came into view. "Power empty, free falling."

"Three, two, one," Talmon muttered as they plunged into the dark water of the port and sent waves outwards.

The vehicle sank for a while but eventually floated to the surface and began to bob up and down, releasing small ripples. "That was fun!" Talmon chirped. His ability to become easily excited was the only thing she'd change about him. She looked over her shoulder as the EDAM stopped bobbing and Talmon nodded. "The area's clear, mission start." He turned off his map and flicked the red switch behind his head.

"The target?" Aleena pushed the door open, tying her hair up with a black bobble using her other hand.

"Not far. A minute or two if we run," Talmon replied as he stood on the lip of the vehicle with her. "Seven Dragon Magic." He moved his paw in front of him and a green circle appeared with runes forming inside of it. He clenched his paw and then seven wisps of coloured smoke flew out from the magic glyph. They swirled around each other to create a bridge to the pier and Aleena burst into a run across it.

"I'll be ahead, catch up when you can!" She leapt off the end and continued sprinting up the hill that curved away from the pier.

"Got it," Talmon called after her as he pulled himself over with the smoke and started running. Behind him, the EDAM exploded, sending waves crashing against the shore, leaving no trace of itself.

Aleena withdrew her Taser gun and flicked the safety off as she ran, looking around for the unidentified dangerous Digimon. She could hear Tal behind her but his short legs meant it was unlikely he would catch up to her. She looked left to right as she came around the corner of a shop and her eyes locked onto her opponent. It was definitely mega level and was looking around the area up ahead, presumably trying to find their target who was in one of these houses. The issue was they all looked the same, and yet that was also her saving grace. She grinned, skidding to a halt; it gave her time to act.

The Digimon itself was extremely big. It was easily the size of the houses that surrounded her, bigger in fact, and looked like a knight in black armour. She aimed with her Taser gun and pulled the trigger, striking it in the face and causing its data to fizzle slightly.

"A human?" the masculine voice muttered, looking down at her with indifference. Quick, quicker than she could register, he tugged the cord that attached the electrode to her gun.

Flying through the air, Aleena was unable to detach the cord, as he began to swing her around like a toy. She grimaced as the wind pressed against her face. Too fast. She was moving too fast to have much control over her body and it was going to hurt a lot when he finally let go. Biting her lip to draw blood, she focussed her thoughts and broke herself from defeatist beliefs. Aiming the gun towards her opponent, she steadied her arms and then tore the cord off. She became weightless, floating through the air like a leaf, until she pulled the trigger again. As it touched his body she flicked the reel switch in unison, dragging herself towards him while the shock coursed through his data.

He roared in fury, lifting his arm to strike her.

Pulling the cord free from the end of her Taser gun, Aleena spun around his arm as it flew at her and leapt off as he tried to shake her free. Landing on his shoulder, she planted a small silver semi-circle—a Data Destruction Bomb—and leapt back off.

"Ready, Tal?" she called as she flew downwards.

He waved his arm and a smoky red dragon flew out from a green glyph he formed to quickly catch her and lower her down. He smirked, clearly getting excited. "Ready!"

"Catch!" She threw the Mega Spark to him and he swallowed it swiftly as their opponent turned to face them. "Boom." Aleena smirked triumphantly, covering her face with her arm, as the device on the Digimon's shoulder beeped and then exploded, knocking him backwards as Talmon's data erupted.

A sphere of light formed around him but quickly both his arms burst out. One was holding a long metal pole and the other was clenched tightly into a fist. His legs came next and then the rest of him wasn't far behind. His armour, dark green and shiny with yellow geometric patterns, was unscathed and his face was matured with longer ears and shaggier fur. "Holy Strike!" Thrusting with his pole, which became blanketed in white light, he pushed the black knight—who was still staggering—backwards. ArmonTalmon spun his pole as its light faded and grinned. "Super bunny in the house!"

"The only house we care about,  _Super Bunny,_  is the one our target is in." Aleena said, rolling her eyes as ArmonTalmon holstered his pole and picked her up, placing her onto his shoulder.

"I think it's this one." He motioned to a house. As he did, their opponent flew towards them and brought his blade down, causing ArmonTalmon to stumble backwards.

ArmonTalmon rolled to the side as Aleena leapt off his shoulder and fired a shot from her Taser Gun at Alphamon. As ArmonTalmon got back to his feet, Aleena landed in his outstretched hand and then he thrust his pole forwards. "Holy Strike!" The bright white lance knocked the Digimon backwards slightly as he was still paralyzed but his demeanour seemed to shift in that moment. "This Alphamon sure seems like he wants to kill me." ArmonTalmon laughed. "I'm getting so into this fight!"

"Tal, get a move on!" Aleena snapped.

"Got it!" ArmonTalmon leapt towards the house he had pointed at, landing in front of it. "So, do you wanna go inside or…?"

Thudding. Alphamon was up!

ArmonTalmon spun, holding out his pole to try and block the attack but it was too late. Alphamon unleashed a blast of energy from his palm, blowing them back.

ArmonTalmon crashed into the house he had been pointing at and Aleena turned as she noticed a presence that was unfamiliar. It was their target. He looked useless, weak and pathetic. It could only mean his partner was incredibly powerful. "Welcome to the team, Taran!" She smiled to try and calm the boy down and prevent him from running.

ArmonTalmon got to his feet slowly and withdrew his pole, holding it to block the attack from their opponent. The defence wasn't strong enough and they were knocked further into—what was presumably—the boy's living room.

Suddenly, she heard a familiar voice.

"Hey, you! I'm not gonna let you harm this dude!"

It was Leon. The childish, arrogant, useless boy wonder himself. Everything from his unprofessional attitude to his unkempt appearance infuriated her; but nothing annoyed her more than his inability to be modest.

She turned to look at him and sighed. "Leon, what you doing here? Professor hasn't given you a Mega Spark!" Suddenly, the black knight brought his blade down again but this time ArmonTalmon put all his strength into deflecting the attack, just barely managing to hold back the colossal knight Digimon.

"Like I need that to take care of this dude! Do you know who I am?" Leon shouted, coming into view with his confident grin. The black knight charged again, knocking them to the floor and raising his blade to finish the job.

Aleena sighed. This was exhausting. It felt like she was babysitting an entire nursery. "ArmonTalmon, go!"

Her partner obeyed, charging to his feet and smacking the black knight back into the street. Leon and his partner ran past shortly after. "Oobmon—when you're ready, buddy!"

Oobmon looked at Leon nervously, which made Aleena smirk. He wasn't a fighting Digimon, he was too nervous to be on the same level as her and Talmon.

Eventually, Oobmon flew off towards the black knight and Aleena saw Leon was in his ski gear. "So, was the Himalayas fun?" she teased, his mission had involved defending a dignitary in occupied Tibet. The rebel movement there was particularly strong due to the numerous Digital Portals open in Asia. This prompt return could only mean it had been boring and hadn't provided him any chances to show off.

"Shut up, Aleena," he spat back as he doubled over, trying to regain his breath.

She grinned and leapt off ArmonTalmon's shoulder. His time was up. He began to shrink back down into her partner but as he did, she could hear the distant sounds of children crying and realised that this boy had siblings. She turned to look at the boy as he tried to run and narrowed her eyes.

"Gosh dammit, I'm just me again. I was enjoying that!" Talmon folded his arms over his chest.

"This is a mission, not a fairground, Tal."

Tal sighed. "Yeah, yeah. So what are we going to do with Oobmon?" He gestured over his shoulder to where Oobmon had chased after Alphamon.

Aleena snorted with laughter. "Your partner got totalled, Leon."

"Wait, what?" Leon exclaimed. What did he expect? A Rookie level against a powerful Mega. No chance.

She looked over at Leon and saw his face was the picture of desperation.

"Oobmon!" He spotted his partner glowing dimly in the street and ran over to him as the helicopter landed nearby.

She turned to look at Taran, remembering that they had to bring him back alive. "Kid, it's time to go," she called nonchalantly.

She was met with an expressionless face for a while before he eventually began to obey her.

"Oh, and bring that with you." She nodded to the present that was in his arms. Thus far, she hadn't seen a Digimon, which meant that he had it in a Digiegg within that present. Although there was another present with the same wrapping under the tree that also drew her attention. He nodded slowly and started walking towards her but then his parents awoke.

Aleena groaned, rolling her eyes. This was turning into more trouble than it was worth. "I hate adults," she grumbled under her breath.

"N- No… We don't want him to go!" his mother begged like a pathetic homeless cat. The two parents retrieved their son and stood strong together.

Aleena kept calm. After all, they'd been brave enough to say no to a member of RODAF. "We have to take him. Sorry, but it's not safe for him here." Keeping to her most professional tone, she withdrew the bag of REM powder from her pocket, grabbing a handful, and then attached the rest to her utility belt. "Goodbye," she whispered, blowing the dust from her hand and watching as it hit the family and caused them to pass out.

"Grab that other present and get someone to close up the wall." Aleena clambered through the rubble and picked up Taran.

"Aye, aye, captain!" Talmon planted a small metal aerial on the remaining portion of the wall.

"Can you at least take the tidying up seriously?" Aleena sighed, tossing the little boy over her shoulder. She walked over to the helicopter where Leon was already inside, sleeping soundly with Oobmon. When he was like this, she didn't hate him so much. It could even be said she liked him. However, there wasn't time for sentimentality in RODAF. "Jet lag," she muttered knowingly. It was probably past midnight by the look of the sky. Pulling the door open, she climbed in. She set Taran down on the seat next to her, strapping him in, and Talmon took the spare seat next to Leon, slamming the door behind him and waking up their companions.

"What's going on?" Leon murmured—half asleep still—blinking to wake himself up.

Aleena tapped her headset as the helicopter began to take off. "Put it on," she shouted above the noise of the whirring blades.

He understood and took off his bobble hat to reveal his dirty blonde hair. It was bushy and curly, a little like a messy teddy. "How long until we reach Home Base?"

"Lee, I don't like heights," his partner mumbled, looking out of the window. "Have I ever told you this?"

Oobmon was very uneasy but it just made Aleena angry. No one was much use to her except Tal. "Your partner needs to conquer his fear. He flies, himself, for Christ's sake!"

"Don't be mean," the blond retorted. "You're just jealous because we actually like each other. Talmon just tolerates you."

"Whatever." Whether Talmon liked her or not didn't matter.

The town of Acquina eventually disappeared from view and the darkness became their environment.

~.~.~

After a while the pilot's crackly muffled voice resounded in the headsets: "We are nearing Home Base." He sounded sleepy and it was clear the rest of them were much the same.

"Okay." Aleena stretched and undid the bobble in her green and blue hair, allowing it to fall around her shoulders.

"Time to debrief," Talmon announced, yawning.

"Probably the only thing you don't get excited about," Aleena mused.

"At least I'm not afraid of heights," Talmon said, sticking out his tongue.

"Stop bringing that up!" Leon snapped. "Anyway, I'm not debriefing. I wasn't officially on this mission," he chirped, grinning.

Aleena shook her head and tightly grabbed hold of his ear. "You had your own mission, stupid," she hissed into the stretched ear.

Leon growled like a dog and pulled away quickly, going into a huff. "I hate you." He was such a child. Then again, so was she.

The island that floated in the sky between America and Britain—Home Base—came into view. It was only a few acres wide, but it was plenty and it was home. The pilot hovered near the island before speaking to the group. "In we go." He eased the helicopter across the boundary sideways, tipping the plane slightly. Then it spun out of control unexpectedly. A Digimon attack? Missiles? Murder?

Aleena gripped her seat, cursing repeatedly.

"LEE!" Oobmon squawked.

"I know, buddy. We're gonna die!" Leon grabbed his partner, clenching his eyes shut. "I'm too young to die!"

"Wee!" Talmon held his arms and ears up into the air.

The pilot began to laugh loudly as the plane settled.

"Conan!" Aleena exclaimed angrily, releasing the white knuckled grip on her seat.

Slowly, the helicopter eased into the base. "It was to wake y'all up," Conan protested, his Southern drawl showing through more obviously. The island was entirely mechanical. On each of the four sides there were three humongous rotors that allowed it to hover in its position. In the top left corner was their location – the black tarmac helipads.

The metal bird hovered over the tarmac for a second before it began its descent. It was just audible, above the whirring of the blades, that the pilot was flicking switches and pressing buttons to make sure the landing was a smooth one. Dust from the tarmac swirled around the helicopter, covering up the windows, negating any view of the outside.

As soon as the blades stopped kicking up fresh dust, Oobmon burst out of the door, his tiny mouth sucking in the air quickly in an attempt to relax. "Come on, Lee, let's go!" he uneasily exclaimed, still trembling as he looked back at the mechanical beast.

Leon smiled and climbed out of the open door. He walked over to Oobmon and pulled his hat back on and then grabbed and hugged his friend protectively. Oobmon slowed his breathing and leaned into the hug, being that he had no actual arms to hold onto Leon with.  
"Thank you Lee," Oobmon whispered, closing his eyes.

Talmon pushed open the other door and picked up Taran, but as he moved to climb down a man in a crisp black suit walked over to the door with a metal stretcher next to him.

He looked at Talmon through his black sunglasses but the Digimon didn't move.

"What?" Talmon folded his arms, Taran held firmly in his ears.

"Place the target onto the stretcher," he ordered in a monotone voice.

Aleena walked up behind Talmon and placed her hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eyes. "It's okay." She took Taran from her partner's ears and placed him onto the stretcher.

After he was on the stretcher, the man strapped him in tightly.

Aleena loudly asked, "Is that  _really_ needed?"

"We don't know what risk he poses," the man replied curtly.

"He's asleep. And like eight! That's no risk, idiot," she growled, locking eyes with him as Talmon placed the other present he had collected under one of the straps.

"Goodbye," he stated flatly, walking away towards the hospital.

"One day, I'll kill Andrew," Aleena grumbled, jumping out and stretching. "One bullet, right between his eyes and bang. No more headaches. Well… there's Rori too. And Leon."  
"I can never tell if you're joking about stuff like this," Talmon said, hopping down onto the ground.

Aleena looked over her shoulder and replied, deadpan, "I don't make jokes." That wasn't entirely true, occasionally, she'd make a joke if the situation allowed it.

Aleena started walking towards the Debriefing Room. The sooner she got this over and done with, the sooner she could get to Poker Night with Reuben and Nyx. The Debriefing Room was situated within the fenced area that the vehicles were kept in so it wasn't a far walk.

Talmon left her side to catch Leon as he tried to creep away discreetly. He leapt onto the blond's shoulders and tugged at his ears to get him to change course. "This way; you have a debriefing too."

Leon sighed. "Dammit," he cursed under his breath.

"March, slave!" Talmon ordered, chuckling, as Oobmon began to fly towards Aleena.

"It's always me," Leon grumbled as he started walking the same way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why was Alphamon there? What is Simyan hiding? What will happen to Taran? And what on earth is an EDAM? All will be revealed eventually. The site for the fic is live currently and being built up. The link can be found in my bio.


	4. New Arrival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We meet the people of RODAF and see what situation Taran is in now.

As she walked in, Aleena saw a familiar redhead and her partner. "Crap." Groaning, she rubbed her head as she felt the headache coming on pre-emptively.

Rori jumped up, waving. "Hey!" She patted the seat next to her. "Come sit next to me!"

Aleena sighed. "I'd rather not."

"That's fine too. I just finished my debriefing but I'll definitely stay for yours if you want!" Rori sat back down, looking at her partner, Orchidemon.

"Please leave," Aleena grumbled, rolling her eyes at the thought of having Rori there unnecessarily.

Rori pouted, standing up slowly. "If you're sure…"

"I am." Aleena walked over, taking the furthest seat from Rori.

Talmon walked in, Leon and Oobmon in tow. "Play nice."

"That means I can stay?" Rori asked, grinning.

Talmon looked at Aleena and then back to Rori. "Sure."

Aleena cursed inwardly. That rabbit just loved to annoy her. Glancing over to the front, she saw a man in a pressed green military uniform. Lord Kayran, their commanding officer and the head of RODAF.

"Please take your seats," he ordered.

Leon sighed, walking over and slumping into the nearest orange plastic chair situated in front of the projector.

Talmon leapt from his perch on Leon's shoulders and landed in the seat next to Aleena. "We caught up eventually," he whispered.

"That's true," Aleena said, looking forwards to their CO. Something thwacked against the side of her head and Aleena spun to see Leon sticking out his tongue.

"I could be in bed right now," he hissed.

Aleena snatched up the ball of paper he had thrown by her foot and tossed it back. "You'll sleep through this anyway!"

"I wanna play!" Rori chimed, looking around for some paper.

"Leon…" Oobmon muttered as the door opened.

From the doorway, a man in a pristine black suit with matching sunglasses walked in. Andrew. He quickly took up position next to Kayran at the front.

Aleena sighed as she saw him stood proudly at the front. He was such a tool. The screen abruptly flickered on and an image of the boy from earlier was projected onto the screen. He was asleep in a hospital bay, still strapped down to the stretcher. Around him, a nurse and doctor were strapping equipment onto him.

"Now that everyone has arrived," the man in the army uniform began slowly but purposefully. "We shall begin with the debriefing."

"Yes, sir," they all replied in unison.

Picking his nose, Leon flicked it lackadaisically at Andrew.

Andrew glared at Leon, who pretended not to notice. Gritting his teeth, Andrew clenched his fists. He was so easily riled up.

Leon stuck out his tongue while Kayran discussed the agenda.

Then there was silence. Aleena snapped her eyes back to their CO to see why.

Kayran shot a vicious glare at the man in the black suit. "Operative Andrew, take a seat, won't you?" It wasn't a request, and was only thinly veiled as one.

"Sorry, sir." The man with the caramel-coloured skin rushed off to a seat without a single protest.

"Now that everyone is  _finally_  seated, I have something to show you all," he announced, tapping a button on the black controller in his hand. The previous live feed of Taran vanished and an image of him at the beach with his family flashed on. It looked almost serene, with crystal clear water in the background. "This child was recovered from the mainstream population and brought here because his soul Reprieved during REM sleep." He pressed the button again and the screen changed to footage of Taran's body jolting about as he slept in a dark blue room.

Rori covered her mouth in shock, nearly crying as it showed blood dripping from his nose. Her emotions always got the better of her.

"He looks crazy weird," Leon commented, watching the footage intently. The man at the front shot him a glare and Leon looked down at his shoes in embarrassment.

The man pressed the button again and the image swapped back to one of the beach. Rori wiped her eyes to see the man glaring at her. "Sorry," she whispered.

He sighed. "That particularly powerful Reprieve—and the catastrophic damage of the Pseudo Digimon he spawned in the next town—means, as you all know, he is a Digidestined. He's probably a more powerful one than any other RODAF operative. However, he is now one of us." He pressed a button and their logo flashed up.

"Where's his Digimon?" Oobmon whispered to Leon.

"Yeah, where is his partner. He can't be stronger than me and Oobmon without one!"

Kayran's burning gaze was directed in full force at Leon. "Operative Leon," he enunciated every letter, malice dripping from his tongue. "It is within the box the child has that his Digiegg lies in waiting."

"Well, how was I supposed to know that?" Leon threw his arms up and then folded them across his chest. "I mean, I'm not psychic!"

"Silence!" Lord Kayran barked, his voice vibrating Aleena's bones.

Slowly, their Commanding Officer paced across the small, raised platform at the front until he stopped on the other side of the screen. "So, now that's settled; it's time to talk about the mission." His eyes moved over them all until the black orbs focussed on Aleena. "Operative Aleena, would you like to begin?" The question was rhetorical. She had to.

She focussed her eyes on his shiny black boots in order to evade his gaze. They were polished to a high standard but the signs of war and conflict were still visible beneath the heavy layers of polish, just like Kayran himself. "When we got to the house." She looked up as the image changed to one of the house.

"Go on," Kayran urged, walking over to the chairs and pulling one close to the screen to sit on.

"We saw a UDD preparing to possibly kill or kidnap our target and maybe others too." She paused, waiting to see if he offered criticism but he didn't. "I used the Mega Spark Professor Simyan had gave me and fought with Alphamon to prevent casualties." She paused again, waiting for an interruption but none came.

"And-" She saw his mouth open and flinched, her eyes and ears closing briefly in preparation for the rant that would follow.

"Aleena?" he exclaimed, spittle spraying out. "Why did you do it?" No one said a word in her defence, in fact you could have heard a pin drop at that moment.

She breathed deeply, trying to keep her emotions in check as he continued to shout about how she had been no match. "We had no choice!" She only faltered slightly, keeping calm. He would not get to her.

Kayran leaned back in his chair, willing her to go on.

"We were the only operatives in the area and facing him was the only option to retrieve the target." She felt her confidence return as she spoke.

He sighed, waving his hand tiredly. "Continue."

"We battled for a bit before we were knocked into the house." Feeling an air of unease around her, she looked straight into Kayran's eyes and saw the fury hidden behind them. She debated continuing for a moment before realising that everyone else was frozen solid. "Ermm, sir?"

"That's civilian property damage!" he exclaimed, clenching his teeth.

"Talmon cleaned it up." She had to stay calm and cool but now her partner was in the hot seat.

Kayran's eyes flitted over to Talmon. "Well?"

"I placed a signal for regulation builders to locate and fix the house by morning, and for agents to wipe the memories of everyone in the street." He kept cool under the pressure from Kayran, more so than Aleena. She was truly proud of him. Although, it was probably due to that detective movie he watched last night rather than her own influence.

Lord Kayran sighed, realising there was little else that could be done to rectify the situation. "Continue, Operative Aleena."

Inwardly groaning as the attention was placed back on her, she tried to think of what to say next. Skipping to the end seemed smart. "Then Leon and Oobmon arrived and Alphamon cleared off." She had hoped the hot seat would be passed to Leon but there wasn't any luck in that department. His eyes were still boring into her soul. "We collected the target and left immediately." Breathing a sigh of relief, she relaxed but quickly looked back up as she realised she had forgot something. "Oh, and we used sleeping powder on him and his parents to stop any resistance."

"That was an adult dose. You could have harmed the target," Lord Kayran retorted swiftly.

Quickly, Aleena blurted, "We had no choice." Crap. Now she had to justify it. "We either passed or failed."

"And?"

"After that we returned to Home Base."

Rori bounced up and down in her seat, raising her hand and waving it about. "I finished the quickest, with no casualties, and now I'm here too!" Giving Kayran a thumbs up, she announced proudly, "Mission Success!"

Aleena groaned, rolling her eyes. "No one cares."

Rori sighed and sat back down.

Lord Kayran got up slowly, looking at them all and lifting his foot into the air. He thrust it suddenly, launching the chair he had sat on across the room. It screeched loudly as the metal legs scraped against the stone floor until it crashed against the back wall of the long room. He tapped the button on his controller and their logo appeared on the screen.

"What's this?" he demanded.

"The RODAF logo," Aleena replied, keeping her outward appearance calm.

"And what does it mean?"

"Anyone who has that logo is part of the Retrieval of Digidestined Auxiliary Force," Oobmon explained, having finally got over his motion sickness.

"And why is no one wearing the logo?" he asked, catching them all off guard.

Rori shuffled her feet, blushing slightly. "What do I say?" she whispered quietly to Orchidemon.

Leon looked down and away in a silent huff but Aleena didn't startle. She stared back at him with fierce disobedience. Even though she was managing to return his gaze she didn't have the stomach to muster a response.

"We will end here. You're all dismissed; I'll debrief you later, Leon," he announced. He pressed a button on the controller and the screen went black.

Aleena got to her feet along with the others but turned when she noticed her partner had stayed behind.

"What'll happen to Taran?" he asked.

"Talmon, leave it," she hissed. It was like jabbing a sleeping lion with a stick.

"The target will be held in our medical facility temporarily until other arrangements can be made. You're all off the clock for today." He kept his gaze fixated on them until they all left, one by one, through the green door.

Aleena stopped as she saw Andrew's partner hovering towards them. It was a large floating rock with black slits for eyes and a larger slit, which could grow and shrink accordingly, for a mouth. "Great," she grumbled.

"G-Mon, is that you?" Rori called, waving with a grin. "It's been so long!"

"G-Mon," Andrew said, nodding to his partner.

The green haired girl could feel her life slipping away as she watched the reunion. "This is boring," she commented, leaving quickly to avoid killing her brain cells any further. She hated how childish everyone was; their lack of professionalism was astounding. If that wasn't bad enough, their conversation was dull at best. However, most of all, she hated how irritating their voices all were. Also, the lack of sleep for the past few days was catching up on her.

Talmon smiled apologetically behind her before following after. The two were headed to the Relaxation complex. It was on the left of the Rest complex, where people were still sleeping.

Rori shrugged, smiling, and then ran off after Aleena. "Wait up!" she called, jumping up and down and waving. "Let's have some girl time!"

~.~.~

Leon shrugged as he looked at Andrew. Actually talking to the older male was impossible. He was incredulously boring. Smiling briefly, Leon headed towards the sleeping quarters in the Rest complex. Orchidemon and Oobmon exchanged brief glances before both followed their partners, leaving just Andrew and G-Mon behind.

~.~.~

Rori chased after her aloof friend; she really wanted to catch up to Aleena before she set up her infamous wall of silence.

Aleena swung the doors open to the Relaxation complex and walked through with her partner, not bothering to hold it for Rori and Orchidemon.

Rori sighed, Aleena was always like this to her and she could never work out why. All she could do was try to win her over with kindness, as her mum had always told her. There was no one who couldn't be won over with a smile and a hug; not even Aleena.

"Hey," Rori called, rushing towards the glass doors that formed a circle when closed. She rushed up to the doors, pushing them open. "So, did you have fun?" she chirped, kicking off her shoes as Aleena walked across the yellow Amazonian rug that served as an extra-long doormat.

"Go away." Aleena stepped onto the fluffy red carpet, which was spread throughout the rest of the building, her partner following her.

Rori stopped in her tracks, her smile dropping. She felt like a wounded victim for some reason, except the pain was from words not weapons. Rori knew that if she was persistent she could be there when Aleena needed her. So, she breathed deeply and then started smiling again as her partner brushed past her to join Talmon in the small beds in the corner of the room. "I'll come over in a sec," she called as Aleena sat down on a green sofa in front of the large TV. Being there for people made Rori feel warm inside but Aleena didn't even get her to feel lukewarm most times.

Aleena's response was gruff, "Don't care."

Swallowing back the pain, Rori rushed over as Aleena picked up the remote from the glass coffee table and tapped the 'on' button. The older girl had stretched out and taken up a whole sofa, which meant Rori had to sit on her own. She pouted in frustration, lying down on the light green sofa. "You okay?" she asked, eager to start a conversation with Aleena. A lock of her curly red hair fell down and she brushed it away, keeping her eyes focussed on the other girl.

"Shut up," Aleena grumbled.

It was like talking to a wall. If walls could hurl insults. "But—"

"You're loud, high-energy, overly perky and basically annoying," Aleena growled.

The words cut deep and caused Rori to retreat within herself. "I- I'm sorry," she stammered weakly. Annoying anyone was the last thing she intended to do.

"Just be quiet." Aleena turned up the volume on the television.

"I really am sorry," she whispered. All she wanted was some sign of approval for all her hard work but it never came.

~.~.~

Leon yawned as he walked into the Rest Complex. His footsteps resounded off the dark cream wooden flooring and made it seem like there were cannons going off in his head. The silence, coupled with his exhaustion, made every single sound amplify by ten. He tossed his shoes off in the general direction of the shoe rack and walked up the spiralling staircase towards the domed glass ceiling. Looking at his feet while walking, especially the cool Cuddles Bear design on his socks, he thought about his trip but suddenly noticed a bare pair of feminine feet on the next stair. He lifted his head slowly to see a familiar brunette.

"Hey," she whispered suggestively.

He paused in shock, feeling his eyes widen as he saw Rachel's dainty frame clad in little else than a translucent red nightdress which accentuated her large chest. Her legs were bronzed and shiny, much like the rest of her. "I-" he stammered.

"Like what you see?" she asked with a playful wink.

"Hey," Leon mumbled back sheepishly, looking down at his feet to hide the burning sensation in his cheeks.

"Oh, no," Rachel cooed. "Don't look down." Giggling, she placed her finger under his chin and lifted his head slowly. Their eyes locked and her beauty paralyzed him. "Your face is so…" A smile crept across her lips slowly. "Yum," she said breathlessly, rubbing the palm of her hand across his cheek before resting against the wall, her nightdress barely covering her as it slipped off one shoulder and she smiled, her red lips pursed slightly.

"So's yours," he muttered, blushing at the compliment. This was so awkward. Why was she doing this?

"Why so quiet?" she asked, looking at her fingernails in an uninterested manner.

"No reason." Looking at her chest made his pants suddenly feel tighter. He hurriedly placed his hands over the embarrassment and tried to move past her.

She seemed to notice his eagerness to escape and moved into his way. "You want to go to bed?"

"Yeah, I do," he said urgently, feigning a yawn. Faced with actually doing anything with such a beautiful girl, he was unable to breathe properly let alone act.

"Well, my room is free…" Rachel winked, and then smiled sweetly. "So… maybe…" She placed her fingertip onto his chest and winked.

"So's mine," he chirped back, slipping underneath her arm and rushing upstairs.

Rachel stamped her foot in frustration and turned around. "Come here, cutie!" she ordered.

He continued to hurry up the steps but slowed down as he realised how angry she seemed. "Rach, I'm super tired," he protested. His eyes were drooping, and he was too tired to keep fighting her so that meant giving in. Hearing her rush up the stairs, he sighed as she caught up to him, tapping his back gently.

"It's fine, I don't mind doing the hard work," she said with a playful giggle.

Leon turned to face her, and as he did, she made deft work of his skiing coat, unzipping it and throwing it over the banister and onto the floor below.

Rachel moved closer, lifting his top and touching his abs as she brought her face close to his.

"What d'you want?" he asked quietly, looking her in the eyes.

She looked hurt for a moment but regained her usual flirty persona quickly. "I just want to be with you."

Pursing her lips together, she traced her finger up his chest and lifted his t-shirt with it. "...My little cutie face." She squeezed his cheek.

He growled and pulled away, stepping backwards. Why had she mentioned that!? Rachel seemed genuinely upset but he couldn't take it back now. "Sorry," he muttered sheepishly. Admitting this to her was so embarrassing but it would be the only way to stop her from going nuclear. "It's just, I don't like people bringing up the fact that my face hasn't exactly caught up to the rest of me yet."

He felt incredibly embarrassed for admitting it but heard her move up another step so they were almost touching again.

She stepped up again, so they were on the same step. Turning him to face her, she leaned in and whispered softly in his ear, "It's fine, I love your face." It sent shivers down his whole body.

Leon turned to look at her. "Rach…"

He looked at her, and their eyes reflected each other. She leaned in further, smiling as she puckered her lips. There was little else he could do now to stop her.

"What are you two doing?"

Leon nearly fell off the stair, gripping onto the glass banister and pulling himself up just before his feet transitioned into the air. Not daring to move for a second he looked at Rachel nervously and then turned slowly to see Andrew walking up the stairs with G-Mon and Oobmon. Pointing at himself, and then her, he shook his head. "I- I'm- She's- Nothing," Leon stammered, blushing profusely.

" _Nothing?_ " she fumed, shock illuminating her face. She pushed him away and ran up the stairs, wailing like a banshee.

"Looks like you're in hot water," Andrew joked, walking up the stairs and patting Leon on the shoulder.

He was happy Andrew had stopped the awkward situation but mad that he had somehow still made things worse. Andrew really was as useless as Aleena said. Leon turned and stormed up the stairs with Oobmon in tow. "'Night, Andrew," he grumbled, stopping as he reached the third floor. He walked towards his room.

"Don't you want to—?"

"'Night, Andrew," he repeated louder and sterner. Slamming his door behind him, he staggered over to his bed—which had a skiing motif—and groaned loudly into his fluffy pillow. Why did his life suck so bad!?

~.~.~

Taran woke up abruptly, slightly startled by what had happened prior to him falling to sleep. His eyes darted around the room and he realised quickly that he wasn't in his own bed. Lifting his head up, he saw that he was only wearing his white boxers because there were wires and needles attached all over his body. The majority of the strange equipment was stuck into his upper body with very little below the waistline.

He jerked a little in shock. He had no idea what was going on. Fear caused him to start breathing more rapidly until he found himself in a nervous panic. When he realised he was panicking, that exacerbated the problem. Where was he? Why was he here? What was all this stuff for? Who did this to him? The only solution was to escape.

Panicking more and more, he started writhing about, trying to wriggle free of all this medical junk. Taran was hoping that somehow he could get it all off him and get back home and away from wherever this was. His miniscule movements weren't working so he started flapping his wrist to get the needle out of the back of his hand. It slipped out, leaving a trail of blood and causing the exit wound to hurt a fair bit. When he tore off the suction cups, his skin erupted like it was on fire.

Taran pulled at the rest of the macabre instruments, trying to remove them. In a blind panic, he pulled at the cords, screaming in pain as they severed his flesh on the way out. The brunet didn't care if anyone heard him. This was too scary. He began to howl in pain, shaking and unable to move as a particularly big needle ripped free from his belly.

A nurse, the only one he could see on the ward, turned after hearing him yelling and rushed over. "Leave me alone!" Taran begged, tears in his eyes as he tried to get out of the bed with the needles still attached and blood staining his white boxer shorts crimson. His head became heavy as the nurse started shouting inaudibly, pushing him back down and holding him in place.

His mind began to grow fuzzy as she held him down. He wasn't able to fight, his eyes just wanted to rest. Looking at the nurse in a daze, he tried to focus but suddenly a gaggle of other medical staff burst through. Seeing them charge at him, like piranhas at feeding time, terrified him and made him want to run again. He had to get away; he could think straight later.

With newfound energy, Taran started to swing his arms about, wrenching more of the strange objects free as he struck out at the members of staff. His vision was becoming hazy. The world was moving in slow motion as they fought back against him. It was as if his ears had been stuffed with cotton wool. His hearing became muted. He tried to struggle but he was pushed back down to the bed. Their mouths were moving but no sound came out. Opening his own mouth, Taran tried to squeal, but nothing came out it, either. Taran kicked one of the nurses in the face, trying to fight his way out, but after that the others quickly clamped his legs down. He tried screaming again but he was beginning to think he'd forgotten how to speak because it was just silence as his head lolled backwards.

A doctor, notable by his stethoscope, rushed through the curtain. He barged his way through the other staff and stopped near Taran's head, placing the classic doctoral instrument onto his chest. The ice cold feeling was felt only momentarily before the physician returned the stethoscope back around his neck. Taran cried in anguish as the man said something, and then his head was forced sideways onto the pillow. He could see in his peripheral vision that the middle aged man had been given a syringe of blue fluid and was squirting it out of the top. Struggling because he didn't want another needle to touch him, he tried to shout again but the metal was plunged into his flesh and the cooling liquid began to course through his veins. It made him shiver and want to escape but quickly he felt himself becoming weaker and weaker until his vision turned to black and the fear subsided.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will Taran be okay? What is going on between Rachel and Leon? Will Rori ever get Senpai to notice her? Answers will be revealed.


	5. Simyan the Secret Keeper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With a secret around every corner, who knows them all?

In a haze of blurred colours and muffled sounds, Taran heard his name.

"Taran? If you'll please, I'd like to ask you a few questions." Taran glanced over at the ape-man sat at the end of his bed. Was this a dream? "Taran?"

Could he speak? His throat was sore. Swallowing back, he managed to rasp, "Yes?" This was so bizarre. He couldn't move any of his body. All he could do was look straight ahead at blank walls and that monkey man.

"Excellent. My name is Simyan and I'm here to guide you." Guide him? Guide him where?

Instead of asking, Taran preserved his words and decided to go along with the dream. "Okay."

Simyan withdrew a iHoloPad from nowhere and then a iHoloPen. It was a dream, so pulling objects out of seemingly nowhere did make sense. The ape-man wiggled the iHoloPen in his hand as he read something on the iHoloPad. Weren't dreams normally faster paced? "Your full name?"

"Taran Lucas James Jones." He hated his middle names. It made his usually short name so long and both the names were stupid too.

Simyan scribbled onto his iHoloPad. "And your date of birth?" Was this a registration for heaven or something? Had he died?

"The fifth of October, twenty-six ninety-one." His birthday seemed so far away now.

"That's all the basics…" Simyan muttered as he scribbled repeatedly and then flicked the blue holographic screen with his finger to move the display. He looked up and grinned. "Now for the fun stuff."

"Have you ever met or do you have plans to meet anyone with the following names: Matt Ishida, Mimi Tachikawa, Joe Kido, T.K Takaishi, Davis Motomiya, Yolei Inoue, Cody Hida, Ken Ichijouji, Sora Takenouchi, Izzy Izumi or Tai and Kari Kamiya?" The names sounded really weird and definitely weren't any Taran recognised.

"No."

Simyan scribbled on his pad. "A few nights ago, did you have a dream that someone was in your room?"

Taran felt his vision fog over and the scene replayed in his head.

~.~.~

Waking up in a fit of sweats, he looked around his dark bedroom. That dream had just been crazy white noise and flying giraffes. He loved giraffes. Sitting up, he swung his legs over the edge of his bed. Above him, his older brother slept soundly on the upper bunk bed. Careful not to wake him, Taran grabbed a glass of water from his bedside table and sipped it to quench his thirst. To his right, near the lamp in the corner, he saw something move. Immediately, Taran opened his mouth to scream but whoever it was flew across the room, like a ghost but faster than lightning, and clamped a firm hand over his mouth. Taran's grip loosened on the glass but with the other hand, the figure placed the glass back down on the table.

"Gru Araa Yoo?" Taran yelled through the calloused hand. Who, or what, on earth was this beast?

At the other end of the arm was a face, too dark to make out save for the sparkling blue eyes and blond hair. "It's okay. This is just a dream, go back to sleep, Tea Ka. I mean… Taran." At least they weren't a big scary monster.

This was a dream? In his own room? How boring. "Ploo Don Kill Moo." He really didn't want them to kill him when he closed his eyes.

"I promise it'll all be okay. Now you're here, we have a chance." Why was he saying now Taran was here? Taran had always been here. "Now go back to sleep." The hand moved away and then the whole person disappeared in a flash of blue light.

_~.~.~_

Taran groaned as he came back to the white room. "How did you know?"

Simyan ignored him and wrote rapidly on the pad. "In that dream, do you remember anything about the face you saw?"

Taran felt a bit uneasy talking about this. Was this monkey inside his head? "It had blue eyes. Really blue eyes that were as sparkly as the sea. And I think blond hair?" He wasn't sure of the last statement due to how long ago it had been.

"Mm, and what did they say?" Simyan twirled the pen in his fingers.

"They said: Now that I'm here, they had a chance." Taran looked at Simyan for clues but even if he was reacting, it was hard to work out the expression on his ape-like face.

Scribbling on the iHoloPad for a while, Simyan eventually glanced up. "I'm going to say a few names to you and I want you to let me know if you recognise any of them. Okay?"

Taran wanted to nod but his body wouldn't respond. "Okay."

"Future Fighters, The Spanish Armada, Parricidium, Ladies Assassination Services Squad, Teikou, DAF, The Resistance?" Simyan looked at him, his eyes querying Taran's lack of response cautiously. "None of them?"

Taran tried to nod but remembered he couldn't. "No, I don't recognise any."

"Well, I suppose there's little chance of you recognising the others," Simyan mumbled.

Simyan scrolled down again and then grinned. "Time for a pop quiz."

Taran hated quizzes. He wasn't very smart and they just made him feel even more stupid.

"What's the capital of the UK?"

"Sabhailte." Taran was sure of this one. He'd been there once for his eldest brothers' graduation.

"And this was formerly known as what before the great wars?"

Taran clenched his eyes shut and tried to dig inside his head. He knew this! "London?"

Simyan nodded and scribbled down on his Pad. "Is it legal to go into the Digital World?"

Taran moved to shake his head, but remembered yet again he couldn't. "No."

"Are all Digimon dangerous?"

Taran shivered as he remembered the stories his parents would tell him about Digimon taking naughty children away. "Yes. Wait. Maybe." Taran believed in the best in everyone, even monsters. Stories weren't real, after all.

Simyan paused and gazed cautiously at Taran, his eyes narrowed and focussed on Taran's face. "One final question."

Taran grinned. It was nearly over and then he could hopefully wake up for real and be back at home. "Yes, mister?"

"Do you know where Gennai is?"

Taran frowned. The name didn't really ring a bell. "No, sorry, mister."

"Thank you. That'll be all." Simyan stood up and then Taran felt himself blacking out.

~.~.~

Simyan walked back into his lab. Using  _that_  on Taran had tired him out. That dream had been interesting though, marginally worth the strain. It was just a shame that he had found out all that he could for now, pushing the boy any further wouldn't be worth the risk. Walking up to a collection of four computer screens at the back of his lab, he called out. "Release the firewall." The four screens moved apart, revealing an old-fashioned noticeboard with thirteen photos on. Various coloured strings were joined between several of the photos and scraps of paper had been pinned to the board at particular points. It was the original twelve and Gennai. This was the biggest mystery he had ever faced and he only had one lead, barring the information Taran had just given him.

_Buzz Buzz!_

Simyan withdrew the iHoloPhone from his lab coat. Holding it up to his face, he looked at the caller ID. Unknown. "Answer."

The phone clicked on and then a voice spoke. "Did he remember?"

Simyan sighed. "It's just you." He walked over to the middle of the room, and down the few steps to the lower area and took a seat on his computer chair. "He thought it was a dream. You're safe. Why on earth you thought it was wise to do that, I'll never know."

"I had to see him in the flesh. The boy who'll save the world."

Simyan held the phone to his ear using his shoulder. "Screen Summon," he whispered, careful not to speak loud enough for the man on the other end of the line to hear. A screen flew over to him from the right and as he held out his hands, a keyboard appeared. "Matt, I really think you've got it wrong."

"Gennai told me the prophecy when I last saw him. When a Jogress Reprieve appears, then that is when the chosen has appeared."

Simyan brought the news story up on the screen. It'd been immediately taken down and archived by RODAF and all those involved or with knowledge imprisoned and brainwashed. An Imperialdramon had appeared in a city near to Taran's home town and almost wiped the city off the face of the map. Some grainy footage on the website showed Imperialdramon slashing a block of flats in half before the camera cut out.

Closing out of the page and brushing the screen away, but not back to its place, he grabbed the phone. "There's no proof it was his reprieve other than that he reprieved at the same time. Other people did too. It was the Winter Solstice, after all."

"But he was closest to the spawn point as far as we know. Come on, Professor. We need this."

Simyan watched the timer in the corner of the nearby screen nervously. "Matt, I do wish you'd tell me a bit more about the others, you know. Perhaps with it, I could help you out some more."

"If this is bribery, it won't work." The phone cut off abruptly. Exactly two minutes and fifty-nine seconds. A second later and Simyan could have traced the call exactly. As it was, with the signal being bounced all over the world, he hadn't been able to triangulate yet again. It was rudimentary software, so there was a chance he could upgrade but something told him Matt would still evade him.

Sliding across the room on his chair, Simyan looked at the whiteboard from a distance. He still knew so little about them all. When Matt had first contacted him, he was sure that would complete the puzzle but the man—who should be dead—had proved to be obstinate at every twist and turn of the way. "Let the Firewall Fall." The screens closed up the whiteboard again and Simyan withdrew the long silver rectangle from his pocket, feeling the cool metal in his hand briefly before holding it out and allowing it to open up into his iHoloPad. It was time to analyse his data on Taran.

~.~.~

Talmon rolled out of bed, careful not to wake Aleena. Thunder boomed behind him, following the previous bout of lightning. Walking slowly across the white carpeted floor, he was careful not to trip in the darkness. The lightning flashed again, briefly lighting up the small dorm room before leaving it dark again. Under the door, a sliver of light seeped into the darkened room. Reaching up to the handle, he pulled the door open a crack and slipped out, closing it behind himself as the heart pulsing thunder sounded again. The hallway spent the whole night lit up as people were coming and going at all hours due to missions.

As he padded down the brown carpeted hallway towards the floor length window at the end, he yawned. He was tired, sure. But sleep escaped him a lot. Ahead, he saw a small figure floating off the ground; it was clearly a Digimon. As he got closer, he saw it was Orchidemon. It was strange. As much as Aleena detested Rori, Talmon really didn't mind her partner.

"Hey, Orchidemon. You still up?" Talmon walked up next to her, sitting down on the ground and looking out into the dark clouds all around them as the lightning danced across them.

Orchidemon glanced over. "Yes." The flower fairy Digimon was so stoic that it always made having a conversation hard. However, on a night like this it was quite nice to just watch the scenery.

"Couldn't sleep?" Talmon glanced over at her as she stopped hovering and rested on the ground next to him.

"No."

"Is that no you couldn't sleep or no there's another reason you're out here?" Talmon laughed. The answer he'd get would likely only be a word or two and yet he'd just used so many.

"Two."

Talmon frowned. What other reason could there be? "What's the reason then?"

"Rori Nightmare. Sad." Orchidemon's eyes became downcast.

"I see." Talmon leant back, using his ears for support. "Why don't we talk about you, instead, for a change?"

"Me?" Orchidemon asked with shock. She looked at him and then back at the clouds. "Me…"

"So, why do you talk so little? Didn't Rori teach you how to speak?"

"Words Precious. Don't waste. Like Rori." Orchidemon seemed confident. It was clear there were some gaps in her knowledge but she seemed to be content. Happy, even, in her lack of verbal skills.

Talmon smirked. It was quite cute really. At first, he had thought she meant like Rori in terms of using words sparingly, but instead it was a reference to how much Orchidemon cared for her partner's wellbeing. To her, Rori was greater in value than the biggest blood diamond.

"How did you two meet?" Talmon remembered meeting Aleena like it was yesterday. It was when she was about to go into Juvenile Detention.

"Rori hugged egg. Egg was me." Orchidemon really gave nothing away with her response.

Talmon laughed. "But where? What happened?"

"In forest. We had special fruit Rori saved. Dragon fruit." Orchidemon smiled wide. It was almost shocking to see her show any expression as she was usually a blank slate.

"That's nice." Talmon said, smiling back as he fondly recalled his first moments with Aleena. They weren't glamorous, for sure, but it was like his key found a sturdy lock in that moment. A lock that couldn't open to another key, as he was a key that could enter no other lock.

They both sat and watched the sky for a while before Talmon had to ask the question he had been thinking about the past week. "If we hadn't met them… Rori and Aleena, I mean. How different do you think we'd be?

"We wouldn't be." Orchidemon's wings fluttered.

"Wouldn't be different?" It was a strange take. Was his being, his thoughts, innate? Or was he a product of Aleena?

Orchidemon glanced at him. "Wouldn't be here."

"Of course. We wouldn't be in RO—" Talmon froze. He hadn't been giving her enough credit for such profound thoughts. Without Aleena and Rori, they probably wouldn't have been born. If he was a bit more of a pessimist, he'd consider it a life of servitude. But it was more akin to a soulmate. A friend there for his whole journey.

"Oobmon," Orchidemon muttered, still looking out at the lightning.

Talmon turned and saw Oobmon flying down the corridor at full speed. "What's wrong?"

"I hate lightning!" Oobmon scootered towards them. "Leon is too sleepy to cuddle me!"

Talmon stood up. "Slow down, you'll break something." He held up his arms to motion the little Digimon to stop, but Oobmon flew straight into them, nuzzling him.

"That's better." Oobmon breathed a sigh of relief.

"This really wasn't what I was intending to happen," Talmon said, groaning.

Orchidemon giggled. "Oobmon baby."

"I'm not a baby!" Oobmon exclaimed, flying over to her. He looked out of the window and flew straight back to Talmon without another word. "We're so high!"

"I thought it was just planes?" Talmon said, rubbing his head with his ear while Oobmon occupied his arms.

"All heights are too high," Oobmon said. The little Digimon closed his eyes and rubbed his little body against Talmon's brown belly, his breathing slowing and the light of his body dimming as he finally calmed down.

"Bed time." Orchidemon got up and glided away.

"I think I'll be okay now." Oobmon flew off, but jumped when a particularly loud thunder boomed behind them.

Talmon smiled and turned to look back out the window. Maybe one day, he and Aleena could just sit and watch the weather without having to think about missions. But, for now, he was going to have to go and put on his favourite movie and find a way to get back to sleep.

~.~.~

Floating upwards, she saw Home Base ahead of her. Without the AerialAce suit she was wearing, these winds would have already snuffed out her breath and tore her to shreds. In a flash to her right, Alice spotted blue light. A DigiPortal. This close to RODAF headquarters? It wasn't chance. This portal had been conjured. Through the portal burst three Parrotmon. Their colossal green bodies quickly flew upwards towards Home Base. An attack? On her? How foolish. They were just obstacles to bat out of her way before she reached Home Base.

Activating the boosters on the AerialAce suit, she shot up at them while they were still fresh faced. Now to activate that borrowed power of hers. Pushing with her palm, she unleashed a stream of iron filings from both of the pouches hanging at her hips. Both of the streams converged and formed a claw as they shot up ahead of the Parrotmon. Pulling back, she brought the claw towards them. While she hated using this for the tax it put on her incompatible body, it was the only way to level the playing field against Digimon without using her own Digimon partner.

One of the Parrotmon flew down towards her while the other two were caught by her initial gambit and became stunned, falling down below. "Sonic Destroyer!" The Parrotmon gathered a ball of lightning on its head and, in a flash, fired it as an arced beam.

Kicking out to her side, she flew away as the lightning shot down below but the Parrotmon had flown towards her in that time. Now faced with it in front of her, Alice had no choice. Activating the boosters, she flew over the top of Parrotmon. Unravelling the black bandages, which she was wearing around her body, Alice wrapped them around its neck as she flew over the top and tugged tight as she came down its back.

Parrotmon abruptly flew up like an arrow, dragging her with it at blistering speeds.

Letting go of the bandage, Alice flicked her wrist, releasing a spray of iron filings from her hip fluidly. She clenched her fist, hardening them fast into a blade and caught it. Tossing the blade, she activated her boosters to level herself out as Parrotmon tried to turn to face her. As planned, the blade embedded in its wing before Parrotmon could act any further. Moving her palms apart, she spread the filings throughout the incision, opening it up wider until the wing came clear away from the body and Parrotmon fell down below. Snapping her fingers, she reformed the iron filings into a spear and with an absentminded flick, she impaled the Digimon through its head and then withdrew the filings to form a defensive ring around her body.

Behind! Spinning, she spotted the two earlier Parrotmon both flying towards her with their turquoise claws outstretched. At times like this, she wished she was able to use Simon to help her. But her Digimon partner was banned from fighting. Never again would she let anyone get hurt for her. She would fight on her own two feet.

There. She saw it. The iron claw she had used to knock them out was flying up after them. She just had to stall. What would her master have told her if he was still alive? No, there was no time to think of such things.

"Sonic Destroyer!" The two crooned in unison.

Alice activated her boosters at the last second, watching the lightning fly past her and, in that second, she pulled up the iron she had been telepathically dragging up from below and used it to encapsulate one of the Parrotmon by clenching her fist. She held her fist out in front, turned to the side, and used the other arm for support. The ball of iron was difficult to control, partly due to weight, compression and the Parrotmon inside, but it was nearly over.

The other Parrotmon flew at her, its eyes sparkling with lightning.

With no means to do anything, she was sure it knew she was cornered. Or, she would be, if she were an amateur. Pulling the clenched fist in fast to her side, she dragged the wrecking ball with it, blowing it straight into the other Parrotmon and bringing it quickly towards her. Using the other hand, she flicked her finger upwards and spikes erupted from both the ball and the ring around her body, impaling and decimating her opponent. With one final clench of her fist, the iron ball squashed down hard before spreading back out and she watched the data spiral upwards around her. Now, nothing was in her way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wait, is that our Matt alive? Matt from Adventure? Or is he a phony? And who is this Alice person?


	6. History 101

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The secrets of the past slowly unravel

King clenched his fists, eyeing her nervously. He was clearly intimidated by her reputation. But he needn’t be. In truth, so many of her victories relied on that ability. She longed for the days where she had more time to pursue fighting by other means. Her World Record titles would not remain unbroken forever. And now she’d finished with the female opponents and the lightweight male opponents in MMA, she needed more of a challenge. King could provide a test for her. To see if she was still up to scratch. 

Alice measured his height, weight, and muscle density at a glance to determine his reach, power and speed. This would be a battle of speed, rather than strength, if she were to play to her strengths. She slowly walked towards him, being closer before the battle started was beneficial. Without the bandages or training weights on her body, her vision was unhindered and her speed increased. Her mind flashed back, interrupting her battle stratagem. 

* * *

Cursing inwardly, she bit her lip and said, “I need more power.” Alice stood in front of Charles Kayran. He was behind his monolithic wooden desk clearly meant to resemble his might but succeeded only in making him look small.   
“I knew you’d come around eventually.” Kayran withdrew a tan folder and slid it across to her. “Go get this for me, I have an idea in mind for exactly how to improve that strength of yours.”   
Picking up the manila folder slowly, she flipped it open and saw her target. Without Seemon, it would be a challenge by itself but Simyan’s Body Enhancing pills would more than suffice to improve her battle prowess. A Mega Level was no more difficult to bring down than a Rookie with the right preparation. 

* * *

King darted at her, his haymaker coming in from the right.   
Like she was made of rubber, Alice slipped under his arm, thrust her fist into his side and kicked at the back of his knee, knocking him to the ground. And then, twirling around his back, she moved to perform a headlock for an easy first round submission.   
Sadly, King wasn’t going to let that happen. As soon as her hands got close to him, he gripped her by the black lycra RODAF jumpsuit she was wearing, and tossed her over his head. 

Alice righted herself mid-air and bounced off the wall gently, landing on her feet. Walking towards him slowly, she teasingly asked, “So, how is it, having all these new people around you when you were an original?”   
King grunted, leaping up at her. He seemed to be all might and no flexibility but she couldn’t leave room for error. 

He threw a feint to her face and then brought his fist to her stomach.   
Stepping back once to dodge, she saw him follow—as she thought—but now his firm balance was unsteadied. Gripping the wrist of the fist he’d thrown, she waited for him to throw the other at her right flank, which he did immediately. Slipping under it, she grabbed his right leg and flipped him over her body, pinning him to the ground in one swift movement. 

Smirking while sat on top of his heaving chest, Alice saw his frustration. She felt it too, if she was honest. This had been sub-par at best for a first round. “Was my promotion to the Assassination Squad too much?”   
King threw her off with a grunt and wiped his mouth.   
“Or was it Cory’s promotion?” Riling him up was cheap, but she wanted to know more about him and get him to come at her with more gusto. Knowing your own team’s weaknesses and strengths was paramount to forming a winning strategy. That was why she had none and she fought alone. Without a weakness or a strength, she was an enigma that would kill before anyone had a chance to work her out. 

King shook his head and sat down. “I give. Fighting you while like this is stupid. I’ll just lose.”   
“Smarter than you look,” Alice commented calmly, sitting down across from him. She kept her distance, just in case.   
“You want to know more about me, right?”   
“If you’d allow it,” Alice said, giving nothing away. A good poker face was key to negotiations.   
He spoke with a straight face and a calm tone, “I came from a good family, a happy well-off family.” His vacant stare could be misconstrued as boredom but she could see him reliving these moments. “Age eight, RODAF took me in. Age fourteen, my mentor died as the last member of the team I had grown to love as my new family.” King threw his hands out to the side lazily and sat back. “It’s not a long story.” 

Alice studied him. He didn’t appear to be lying. Still, it was a tragic tale worthy of comfort. But she wasn’t the comforting type. Slowly, she said, “There, There, it’s okay.”   
King rolled his eyes. “If that’s all.” He moved to stand up. 

“My master died too.” Alice saw him stop in his tracks. She felt the memories bubbling up inside of her. “And my parents, along with my subsequent guardians…” Alice watched him turn back to look at her but she could only see flashes of her past running across her vision now. “All at the hands of one man.” She clenched her fist involuntarily, feeling the anger brew inside of her as she stared down at it. “It’s now my goal—my only aim in life—to kill that man and avenge them.” 

King’s hand touched her gently on the shoulder. Snapping her eyes up, she saw metal all around the room warped and bent out of shape, and all coming towards her. Relaxing, she relinquished her control over the metal and then she slowly pushed it back into position. 

King eyed her carefully, his brown eyes devoid of malice. “I hope one day you can let go of that. Hatred only breeds more hatred.” 

Alice’s pager buzzed at her hip before she could think on his words. Plucking it from its spot, she read the message. It was time for another mission. “I have to go.”   
“Remember what I said.” King walked off, picking up his bag as he left. His partner, a slender female-looking Digimon called Calmoonmon, followed him quickly.   
Alice shook her head. No blockhead was going to make her stop in her pursuit. He would die by her hands eventually. 

* * *

Rori watched closely as the fingernail was torn from the olive-skinned finger. Screams of agony erupted, accompanied by begging and pleading. From where she was stood, behind observation glass, Rori could tell that the new trainee was reaching her limit. However, that limit was too low to be acceptable and would obviously be ignored in favour of making her more hardy for the future. 

“PLEASE, I CAN’T! PLEASE! I’LL TELL YOU! I’LL TELL YOU!” She hung her head in shame, blood dripping onto her naked body from her defeated face. Softly, her voice as hoarse as chalk, she whispered, “Please just stop.” 

“Put Operative 1512 in Isolation. Torture will resume in two hours.” The intercom was like a god inside this area of Home Base. In your first few weeks, you would undergo combat training and torture training, which were the two pillars of RODAF employee’s strength. At this time, you were known by your number and not your name, it was all part of establishing the correct mentality. There was no human contact, only the intercom. Until an Operative was able to resist level five torture, which involved mental manipulation, waterboarding, physical mutilation and much more, for up to 24 hours straight you were not cleared and would repeat until you passed. 

Rori sighed and walked away. She had only came looking for Aleena anyway; she knew the green-haired girl constantly topped up her torture training, being far above Rori in that respect. Rumour had it Aleena had survived to level ten, which was the maximum level of torture expected of an operative to endure prior to their rescue in a real world scenario. 

Heading down the echoing metal hallways, she heard something coming from one of the office rooms. Almost everyone was on lunch break in the Office Complex at this point. Peering through the window, she spotted Talmon talking to someone who was out of sight. 

* * *

Seeing Rori ahead outside one of the torture chambers, Talmon sidestepped into the nearest office room. If Aleena saw them two chatting away it’d only serve to rile her up. Closing the door behind himself, he exhaled and looked around. The rooms were so simple really. Crimson carpet, a bookcase on the left and a table on the right along with a desk and… a person in a chair? A person not wearing the RODAF uniform? Talmon froze and so did they. Then his body moved before his mind could catch up, with his paw lifting and summoning a red misty dragon from a hastily formed glyph. 

The pink haired woman sat idly and held up her hands. “And what’s your name?”   
Talmon fired the dragon at her, wrapping it tightly around her. “You’re caught. What were you up to?”   
Attempting, and failing, to flick her hair out of her eyes, she looked at him with a bright smile. “Talmon, isn’t it? Reminds me of my own partner.”   
Talmon cursed. How did she know his name? “Don’t try and trick me. Breaking into RODAF is punishable by death.” He dragged her free from the desk and over the bookcase on the left wall, thrusting her against it. Books flew onto the floor, their contents spilling open. 

Her eyes, her mouth, everything about her was as cool as a cucumber. “I’m here collecting data on RODAF’s Digimon experiments.” Why on earth was she revealing her objective so easily?   
“Shut up!” Talmon exclaimed, calming his breathing. RODAF didn’t do experiments.   
Cocking her head to the side, she asked, “You do know that they’re infecting Digimon and using those infected Digimon to wipe out all other inhabitants of the Digital World, right?” Looking at him, her eyes softened at the corners. She had to only be around thirty or forty. “Digimon just like you.”   
Talmon thrust her against the bookcase again, knocking off a snow globe, which shattered and squirted out sticky liquid over the carpet, turning it darker.   
Grunting, she smirked. “You didn’t know.” Looking up and away, she teased, “I wonder what else they don’t tell you.”   
“Because it’s not true,” Talmon said, growling. This woman’s lies had gone on long enough. He would take her down the hall and start the interrogation. 

“Talmon?” Rori asked, walking in slowly. She looked around. “Who’s that?” Rori deftly withdrew and extended a metal pole in one swift movement. “Should I go get help?”   
“It’s okay.” The woman smiled, her hand slipped out a gap in Talmon’s dragon and she waved it at them. “It’s time for me to go anyway.” Holding up a strange object in her free hand, she pointed it at the computer. “Bye!” In a blue flash, the computer sucked her in and Talmon’s dragon crashed into itself and then dissipated. 

“Who was that?” Rori asked, looking around cautiously before putting her pole away.   
“No idea,” Talmon muttered. Walking behind the desk, he looked at the computer screen but it was blank. Not a single item on the desktop. “And she didn’t leave anything behind,” he muttered pensively.   
“Have you seen Aleena?” Rori rested her shoulder against the door, kicking her legs out to the side. “I was hoping to talk before we go away on missions again.” She pouted.   
“What about?” Talmon looked up from the computer. There was nothing he could do with it now.   
Rori shrugged. “Nothing really, I just heard she was an orphan.” 

Talmon became steely. How did Rori know this? He had to protect Aleena at all costs. “And if she is?”   
Rori smiled. “I am too. So it’s something in common, see!” She beamed. “And I bet she’ll like me more if we have things in common.” Rori bounced up. “Tally Wally, you’ll tell her for me, won’t you?”   
“You really aren’t used to people not liking you, are you?” Talmon said, walking around the desk and then leaping up, sitting on the hard wooden desk so he could watch her.   
“I guess not.” She slumped back against the metal door. “I had a happy childhood. Mum and dad were great! We always had lots of love for each other; and nature, of course.” Figures it started with her parents. 

Remembering his talk with Orchidemon last night, he asked, “Is that when you met Orchidemon? When you were out in nature with your mum?”   
Rori nodded. “Yeah, kind of. My mum wasn’t there anymore.” Rori looked down, her eyelids fluttering. That façade of happiness slipped for just a moment before she looked back up, grinning. “I found an egg, which I thought a mother bird had lost so I looked after it until it hatched. I hadn’t expected Orchidemon but I’m so glad it was her.”   
Talmon smirked. She was so simple. “I see.” He hopped down from the desk and stretched. “Well, I best be off.”   
“Are you going to see Aleena?” Rori asked as he walked towards the door.   
“No,” he lied, stopping in front of her. “Just back to bed.”   
Rori nodded and stepped aside from the door, allowing him out. “Bye Tally Bear!” 

As he walked down the hall, he heard her speak once more.   
“Remember, Rori, kindness is key.”   
Talmon felt a twang of pain as he heard those words. Maybe he could talk to Aleena for her. But maybe Rori didn’t actually want that, was it not better to earn someone’s respect than have it given for free?

* * *

“Hey, Professor!” Aleena called, walking through the narrow hallway into his laboratory. “I know you’re in here!” She looked around, from the end of the hallway, but there was no one around. “I wanna talk!”   
Simyan dropped down in front of her abruptly, flicking a pen and pad of paper from his feet to his hands as he landed. He raised a furry eyebrow. “Yes?”   
Aleena was a little stunned, but she still had to know. “What is it about Taran that is so special? I’ve not been on a retrieval mission since I was a Rookie.” Crossing her arms, she furrowed her brow. Being treated like a newbie was humiliating. “And suddenly, I’m going after a stupid eight-year-old?”   
Simyan laughed. “Ah, yes.” He tore off the first page of his pad, folding it up neatly and slipping it into one of his lab coat pockets. It appeared to be covered both sides in diagrams and writing. “Come in.” 

Purposefully, he walked into his laboratory with his arms clasped behind his back. “Screen Summon.” He flicked his fingers at two screens as he descended the four steps to the lower area of his lab. With a quick spin, he sat down on his computer chair and the two screens stopped either side of him.   
Aleena followed cautiously. He seemed very serious all of a sudden. “Well?”   
Simyan slid backwards on his chair and flicked a switch on the long black work table in the middle of the lower area. A white chair popped up from the blue tiled floor facing him, just ahead of Aleena. “Take a seat.” He flicked open a pizza box on the table, which was situated on top of a mountain of papers. Snatching the last slice, which was obviously cold, he began to chew on it.   
Aleena slumped down and folded her arms. “Look, I just wanted to be told. This is taking forever. Either tell me or I’m going.” 

Simyan nodded, swallowing the rest of the pizza in one go. “As can be expected.” One of the screens moved to his side and he turned to it. Holding out his fingers, he waited for the holographic blue keyboard to be projected before he started tapping away and the screen came to life. “You are aware of how a Reprieve works, Aleena?”   
“Sorta.”   
“Excellent. A human is bonded with their Digimon partner in exceptional circumstances. These circumstances included a few consistent factors.” Simyan held up a furry finger with one hand and continued typing with the other at a rapid pace. “One, a Reprieve has only ever been known to occur in a Solstice.” Holding up another, he continued, “Two, almost exclusively the Digimon reprieved, or summoned as a false image, is not the human’s Digimon partner.” Holding up a final finger, he said, “And lastly, the Digimon Reprieved is rarely above Champion level.”   
“Yeah, yeah,” Aleena said. She’d sat through several boring lessons on this crap. “Now, tell me about Taran.”   
“One minute,” Simyan chided. “I just want to add that a reprieve outside of the Solstice has become more common as of late, and I’m currently investigating other factors.”   
Aleena rolled her eyes. “I don’t care.” 

Simyan sighed heavily. “You’ll never change.” He moved the screen, now done typing, and showed her it. “Taran’s Reprieve was above the level of Mega. It was a Jogress level Digimon. Strictly speaking, Jogress is not higher per say, nor was this a real Jogress because it was summoned in this form and not via joining two Digimon…”   
Aleena zoned out as Simyan continued to drone on about the intricacies of Digimon levels, types and attributes. It was a lecture she could do without. She thought about cake, a delicious treat that they were rarely allowed in Home Base. A mountain of cake. It was definitely her favourite food. Especially when it had a buttercream filling.   
“Aleena.”   
She snapped her head up from the doze she was in, looking at him attentively. “Yeah?”   
“I’ve finished with the lecture. You can listen again now, in fact, if I’m going to talk to you I’d prefer your active attention.” Simyan pushed back the first screen and it flew over to the wall.   
Aleena heavily sighed. “Fine.” 

“Very well.” Simyan held out a finger and as the keyboard was summoned on the other screen, he hit a key to bring the screen to life and show a video. “It’s grainy, but in essence…”   
Aleena watched that huge Digimon fire off an energy blast, blowing up a huge chunk of the city. “It was the strongest Reprieve ever, right?”   
“It exceeded the data we currently have, yes.” Simyan paused, his eyes judging Aleena closely. “But that doesn’t mean that Taran is anything to fear. He is, as you say, an eight-year-old boy who does not currently have access to his partner.”   
“Will his partner become that strong one day?” Aleena asked and then the footage abruptly shut off and the screen flew away.   
“Potential is the hardest thing to judge. An orphan who was not far from jail can become a leading operative of a government agency in a few months.” He was talking about her, and she wasn’t sure if he was trying to annoy her or trying to confuse her about what she was asking. “Anything is possible.” 

Phrasing her next question was a lot harder than she thought it would be. “Why is he—? Why’s it so hard to—?” Aleena growled in frustration. Screwing her face up, she threw her body back into the chair and hung her arms and legs limp.  
“Why are you finding it difficult to dislike him like you do with the majority of people you meet?” Simyan smirked. “Instead of throwing a tantrum, just articulate.”   
“Don’t say stupid words, just tell me what I want to know,” Aleena demanded, sitting back up.   
Simyan sighed. “A pure light draws shadows to it, they’re attracted to something so different, and, while they may never become light themselves, they can change, becoming brighter within them self. For some, this is a subconscious desire—something they don’t even realise is lurking inside.”   
Aleena rubbed her head. This was hard to digest. “I just mean that I feel like I have to protect him. What is it?”   
Simyan shrugged. “Psychology tells us that it’s beneficial to protect the next generation so they become strong and further the species.”   
Aleena nodded. “So, when I make him strong I’ll be able to forget about him?”   
Simyan frowned, furrowing his brow. “I don’t think it’s quite that simple. There are many factors—”   
Aleena stood up, rushing back out. “Thanks, Professor.”   
“We’ll talk later, I presume!” He called after her. She heard him tear open a bag of crisps and begin to munch. “Don’t be a stranger!” 

As she walked out, and back towards the elevator up, she thought about it. The lift dinged and the doors slid open. Walking inside, she leant against the metal railing at the back. Taran was special, this was true. And according to Simyan, she couldn’t get rid of her feeling that she had to be there for him. So, for now, she would do her best to make him stronger. The doors shuddered shut and the lift began to ascend with a loud whirring as the dim lights overhead pulsed tiredly. If he hadn’t jabbered on so long, she could have asked about how he knew she would need the Mega Spark. Well, there was always another day. 

* * *

“You’re special too, Aleena.” Simyan said, after hearing the lift move away from the comfort of his chair. A screen flew over to him and, by tapping a few keys, he brought up a surveillance feed of the lift. “More special than you or I know.” He pulled up her file on his computer and began to add information under family history, which he had been researching prior to her interrupting. Strangely, it wasn’t as empty as RODAF would have her believed. However, it had taken some digging. 

Buzz Buzz!

Quickly, Simyan withdrew his mobile phone and answered it. “Matt, have you come around?”   
“I need you to send me another batch of files.” Simyan sighed and tapped away on his computer, finding the folder of files about RODAF Matt had requested. “You told me before you were now collecting the files by yourself?” Simyan dragged the folder onto an email and an unknown address popped up by itself. It was a program forced onto his system which utilised a different email address each time that he had allowed, although presumably Matt hadn’t realised that Simyan could have deleted the sorry excuse for a hack long ago. “What, exactly, are you doing with all this information? Are you just stockpiling it?”   
Matt coughed loudly, quickly turning into hacking and choking before he finally came back to the phone. “You could say that.” The phone line went dead abruptly as Matt began to cough again.   
It was true that by Simyan’s estimations Matt must be around six-hundred years old, and yet he was still rumoured to have blond hair from old surveillance videos and Taran’s description. His exact methods of evading old age were more than just a tip for society, they held a greater mystery. The mystery behind their disappearance.


	7. The Odd Couple

Leon watched Alice leap off ahead of him; she landed gracefully on the ground and then dropped her black bag to the ground.   
He climbed out after her, Oobmon floating by his side. “What you doing?”   
Alice withdrew a manila folder from her bag and handed it to him. Immediately after, she withdrew a short blade from the bag and attached it to the small of her back as well as four sacks that jingled like bells. Each sack was hung around her waist, two on her front and one on either hip. The bandages around her ruffled in the windy weather, which was blowing about the tassels on his hat, while her black attire allowed her to blend into the darkness that surrounded them.

Leon opened the folder as Alice withdrew a rifle and tossed her empty bag into the plane. They were to eliminate everyone in this sect of Parricidium before dawn broke. Parricidium was the most powerful resistance to RODAF. It was imagined that they had close to around one hundred million members, excluding the sympathisers who were considered no better. The three hundred or so inside this underground complex were but a drop in the ocean. Leon placed the folder back onto the plane and then it took off, blowing him forwards a few steps. A cool breeze trickled across the back of his neck, making the hairs stand on end. 

“Still sure you want to continue on the path of joining the Assassination squad?” Alice asked, checking the iron sights of the rifle before slinging it over her shoulder by the leather thong that stretched from the barrel to the base.   
“It pays better, right?” Leon said, thinking about the cost of the treatments he still had to pay for. He zipped up his white hoodie and then rubbed his hands across the blue sleeves. Usually, cold didn’t bother him but tonight was especially chilly due to the wind.   
Alice eyed him slowly, her green eyes analysed him as if they were camera lenses. “Indeed.” She turned and looked out towards the small town ahead. “Stay close.”   
Leon nodded and looked at Oobmon. “You alright?” he whispered.   
“Mhm.” Oobmon floated close to Leon. “The dark is a bit scary though.” 

Alice bolted forwards into the town, leaving Leon behind in the dust she kicked up from the cobbled streets.   
Luckily, Leon was no slouch and chased after her. Intel had told them that the entrance to the underground area was in town hall. Which, suspiciously, still had lights on even though it was near midnight. Even the streetlights had been turned off, and not a single house had their lights on.   
Alice stopped at the big wooden doors and leant against the wall next to them, peering through the crack near the hinge.   
Leon stopped next to her. “What’s up?”   
“Here’s your chance to prove yourself.” Alice looked at him, her expression—though hidden by the mask of bandages—had shifted to a more serious one. “Kill everyone inside.”   
Leon looked down at Oobmon and then back at Alice. “All of them?” He bit his lip, this was a big step—taking so many lives.   
“Hesitation leads to death. Watch and learn.” Alice swiftly moved to the doors, grabbing the iron handles that protruded from them. With a sharp yank, she unleashed the light from inside, spreading it out into the town. 

Alarmed eyes turned to them but no one moved. Even their breathing was muted. They looked back at the man at the front, in his lavish mayoral jewellery, pretending not to have noticed. Alice whispered, “Close the door behind you.” Purposefully, she walked up the aisle, towards the mayor, without a word. Stopping at the front, she withdrew her blade in a flash and brought it to the mayor’s neck. “Where is the entrance?”   
Not a single person in the room answered. No one even moved a muscle.   
Leon shoved the doors closed with a boom that made his chest reverberate and then there was a flurry of movement on the stone flag flooring. 

Everyone leapt up from their seats, withdrawing guns, bats and brooms. It was like a switch had been flicked on in them. A gun flew into Leon’s face. Was he really going to die here? No, he couldn’t. But the fear had paralysed him as the finger attached to the gun squeezed the trigger.   
“Naughty.” Alice appeared behind the man who was aiming at Leon and slit his throat. Simultaneously, his gun, and all the others in the room, flew into the air. “I won’t save you a second time.” She back flipped into the air, shooting the rifle twice and then he lost sight of her.   
Leon exhaled, feeling relief as the bullet that had been intended to go between his eyes floated in the warm air above his head. Candlelight to his right flickered as everyone flurried about like snowflakes in a blizzard in an attempt to kill Alice. 

Alice ducked under a bat, doubling over on herself. She slipped backwards, coming behind the person and dragging the arm that held the bat with her. Twirling the person around, she used them to block a hit from a broom and then sliced their neck. Swiftly, she sliced the neck of the broom holder and leapt onto a bat as it was swung, using it to throw herself across the room at gaggle of angry townspeople. In barely a second, all of their bodies crumpled to the ground, blood spurting out. 

Leon was immobilized by the carnage. This would be expected of him if he took this role? Killing these innocent people, guilty of no crime other than believing in a cause. He felt physically sick as Alice mutilated body after body.   
A fist flew into his face, knocking him backwards into the doors.  
Leon slumped down, trying to work out what had happened. He shook his head as Oobmon shouted at him.  
“Leon, get up!” Oobmon flew at someone who was aiming a gun at Leon, knocking the old man into a wall and then flew off to fight others.   
“You’re disgusting!” A middle aged man brought a knife up above Leon’s head and then swung it down. The light glanced off the weapon, almost blinding him.   
He wasn’t prepared to die here. Gripping the wrist that had the knife, he squeezed until the brunet dropped it and then punched him twice in the face before letting go.   
On his knees, the man spat out blood. “Why can’t you just let us live in peace!?” A chain flew around his neck and he was dragged down the aisle rapidly, choking for air. 

Alice held the other end of the chain and swung him around, launching him into a wall where the chain warped and spread out, becoming a mess of spikes to turn his body into an unrecognizable mangled mess in an instant. “Finish the job or don’t start it.” She slowly walked towards the mayor and now Leon could see that the fifty, maybe a hundred people, were all dead on the ground. The guns and bullets—which had been fired at them—that were hovering in the air clattered to the ground like killer raindrops.   
“You okay, Leon?” Oobmon flew over, nudging him, but Leon was too awestruck to say anything. 

Alice stopped in front of the quivering old man, spinning her blade idly in her right hand. “Should I ask you where the entrance is or just kill you and find it myself?”   
The mayor opened his mouth to speak but before he could, Alice rammed the end of her rifle into it.   
“I made my decision.” The rifle went off and Leon felt dizzy as he saw the remnants of a head splattered over the wooden table behind the headless body, that had a bounty of fruit and vegetables on. 

Alice turned back to Leon. “If you hold me back again, I’ll have you sent home. These were just the sympathisers. The members will kill you in an instant and will likely have Digimon partners.” She held out her bloody blade. “Take this.”   
Leon slowly walked forwards, careful not to step on the fallen bodies. He could see Oobmon quivering at his side but didn’t dare say anything. Shakily, he took the knife.   
Alice slapped him, leaving his cheek hot. “Sort. Yourself. Out.” She flicked her finger and the table, complete with foodstuffs, flew at the wall, a metal trapdoor lifting to reveal a staircase. “You’re a RODAF field agent. Not an ordinary child. Act like it.” She left quickly, her footsteps echoing on the stone steps. 

Alice was right. He had to do this for his family. There was no other way. Even if it meant taking a life, he would be able to save the one that mattered to him.   
“Leon?” Oobmon mumbled.   
“Yeah, buddy?” Leon looked down at the little white orb.   
“I don’t want to kill people.” Oobmon shivered. “Do I have to?”   
Leon shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. You just keep the Digimon away and I’ll deal with the people.” He looked down at the knife and then gripped it. “I promise.” 

As he got down to the bottom of the steps, people ran towards him, screaming. Leon grabbed his knife, getting ready.   
“Run, it’s her! It’s the only way!” A blonde woman screamed as she reached Leon. She hadn’t seen him yet so maybe he could do a surprise attack. A blade flew into her back, poking out of her abdomen, and she gasped, looking down at it. Tears ran down her face. “I don’t want to—” The knife burrowed straight through and flew back through her head like a demented boomerang. She slumped onto the ground, joining the few bodies that were already in the metal hallway. 

Leon ran down, trying to black it all out and keep focussed. One of these people would kill him without hesitation so he had to be prepared to do the same.   
Ahead, Alice pulled a sword free from someone’s head and flicked it out to the side, turning it into an almost liquid stream of iron filings. “Why don’t you tell me more about your sister?” Alice said, looking over her shoulder.   
Leon felt his hands become clammy and his chest tighten. How had she found out? “I…”   
“Maybe another time.” Alice leapt back and waved her hand out in front, opening up her palm to change the iron into a shield. In front of them, the door blew off its hinges, a wave of fire and smoke pouring out. As soon as it faded, Alice flicked her hand downwards and then thrust it forwards, changing the iron shield into a spear which flew down the barrel of the bazooka that was facing them. “Let’s step in here.” Alice opened a door and took Leon with her with a sharp tug. 

The room shook as she closed the door and Alice moved to grab the handle.   
“What are you?” Leon asked, grabbing her wrist.   
“You could say I’m human. And you’d be half right.” Alice pulled her hand free and tugged the door open. “You could also say that anyone who touches me has a death wish.”   
Leon gulped. She was terrifying. Like a force of nature greater than any other. 

Alice flew off down the hallway, her footprints scarcely making a sound as she sprinted.   
Groaning, Leon tried to run after her but Oobmon flew in front. He had almost forgotten about his partner.   
“Please don’t become like her.” Oobmon shivered. “It gives me the heebie jeebies.”   
Leon cuddled his partner, pulling him close. “Don’t worry about it, Oobmon. No matter what, I won’t let anything happen to you.”   
“That’s not answering me!” Oobmon shook free from the grip. “Promise me.”   
Leon hesitated. Did he have a choice? Yes. Yes, he did. “I promise.”   
“Then Digivolve me.” Oobmon nodded.   
“Got it.” Leon held out a Champion Spark, a small yellow pill, which was eaten by Oobmon and then ran after Alice. 

As he ran through room after room, and hallway after hallway, he was accompanied by Digieggs and dead or dying people. It was as if the Grim Reaper himself had swept through the building. Up ahead, strangely enough, he spotted Alice with a scythe.   
“Glad to see you caught up.” Alice spun the scythe around her body, bisecting two Palmon that leapt up at her. The plant Digimon fell to the floor and reformed into Digieggs. She leapt through the air, holding the Scythe high above her head as she flew at the humans, presumably the partners of the Palmon, that were intently staring at strange objects in their hands.   
“We didn’t even have chance to Digivolve!” A red-haired man yelled.   
“It’s true what they say about her,” The other said, his voice quivering as Alice brought her scythe down the middle of them. He pointed his gun at her but in one swift motion, Alice brought the Scythe around his neck and tugged, beheading him and then the red-haired man on the back swing. Twirling the Scythe, she transformed it back into iron filings and panted. 

Leon ran up, seeing her visibly exhausted. “Maybe I can help.”   
“No one will ever sacrifice themselves for my sake again.” Alice spat out a glob of phlegm and looked up at him, her eyes burning into his very soul. “Got it?” Standing up straight she looked ahead at the big circular doors. Breathing heavily, she announced, “Iris scanner as well as a key card and thumbprint recognition.” She looked at him, her eyes scanning him up and down. “They’ve gathered up ahead, you know? I can feel the movement of large Digimon across the metal.” She was truly something else, being able to effectively see elsewhere. Maybe she was really only half human. But what was the other half? Cyborg? “Don’t hesitate.” She walked towards the doors. “Not even for a second.” 

Knocking on the door with three loud echoing thumps, she called out, “Knock, knock.” She looked up at the iris scanner, which flashed red as it saw her eye. “Wrong answer.” She leapt back as ArOobmon flew up behind Leon.   
“What’s she doing?” ArOobmon whispered. His body had stretched, becoming humanoid, but it had retained its glowing ethereal nature. Silver armour covered his body and a large mechanical metal bow was in his hand.   
Alice held out both hands, scrunching her fists down. Even through her clothes and the bandages, Leon saw her arm and back muscles ripple, expanding and throbbing as she tensed. The door ahead began to warp and creak, the edges bending inwards slightly. And then, as the hinges broke off, the door collapsed in on itself to form a large metal ball. Alice thrust her fist forwards, leaping after the ball as it flew into a crowd of people and Digimon. “You were meant to say ‘Who’s there?’.” 

Leon and ArOobmon charged in after her but she was already in full swing, with Digieggs and dismembered bodies flying about.   
A Birdramon swooped down with a person on its back. They aimed at him with a shotgun; a primitive weapon, from hundreds of years ago, but civilian weaponry hadn’t come far since the wars.   
“Oobmon!” Leon darted forwards, slicing the end off of someone’s rifle and booting them backwards as it exploded in their face.   
ArOobmon nodded. “Piercing Arrow!” He held out the bow and drew back the string. In the space where an arrow would normally be slotted, a green and blue mass of energy appeared, shaping immediately into an arrow. As ArOobmon released the arrow, it flew towards Birdramon.   
The bird Digimon flew up but the arrow still grazed its belly, tearing the orange underbelly open and releasing streams of data as Birdramon crashed to the ground and reformed into a Digiegg.   
Leon ran over to the man as he leapt off, brandishing his knife.   
ArOobmon intervened, picking up the man and looking at him.   
With a bang, the shotgun went off, but the shell fragments fell to the floor, having had no effect on ArOobmon.   
ArOobmon arched his arm back and threw the man across the room, making him hit the opposite wall with a sickening crunch.  
A Greymon in his periphery was charging. He couldn’t hesitate. “Dodge!” 

“Mega Flame!” The flames poured out, the heat almost unbearable.   
Leon leapt to the side and ducked under a fist launched by Centaurumon. Leaping onto the horse Digimon’s back, he dug the knife into its neck and tugged hard, releasing a stream of data from its hairy neck. So this was also a Data Destruction Blade? Simyan had really kitted Alice out. If it had been an ordinary blade, then it would barely have made a dent in the Digimon’s body. Flipping to his feet, he stood on Centaurumon’s back as Greymon turned to face him.   
One of ArOobmon’s arrows flew through Greymon’s side, unleashing a stream of data orbs, which quickly reformed into a Digiegg. 

Behind him! Leon flipped into the air, avoiding a Growlmon’s claw. As he revolved in the air, he launched the blade, impaling Growlmon in the head. Landing on the ground, he walked towards Growlmon as the latter’s red lizard body slumped to the ground and with a sharp tug, he withdrew the blade and looked around. Even though they had only managed to fight a few opponents, Alice had nearly wiped out the rest of the room of two hundred or so people by herself. 

Alice tossed a female body to the ground and then slowly walked towards a man who was stood at the back of the room. “Last one left. You’ll put up a fight, I presume?”   
He laughed, loudly and heartily. The twenty-something had a bushy beard and tousled brown hair. His chiselled good looks and physique definitely didn’t fit with such underhand work. In fact, he would definitely be more at home in a model agency. His deep voice caused a pang of jealousy for Leon. Would his voice ever break like that? “I was chosen, not once, but twice.” In a flash of light, two Digimon appeared, one either side of him. 

On his right was a bipedal lion, who looked as if it had been left out in the cold too long with white skin and fur. It wore black leather trousers and carried a short sword. On his left was a giant red bug with blue claws and a terrifying mouth of teeth.   
“IceLeomon and MegaKabuterimon?” Alice took a few steps backwards. “Leon, I’m going to trust you and ArOobmon to take care of MegaKabuterimon. He’s an Ultimate, so be careful.” Alice tugged the strings on all four pouches holding the iron filings on her waist and her whole body shifted to a more serious stance.   
“You really think you’ll be able to fight them and me?” He snorted. “I’ll show you why you should fear Parricidium!” He turned his head to MegaKabuterimon and jerked it forwards. Grabbing an object on his waist, he flicked it and a blue light erupted, forming a slim cylinder. A Laser Sabre. 

“Horn Buster!” On the tip of the large double pronged horn protruding from the red bug’s head, a ball of electricity formed and then fired forwards at them.   
“All yours.” Alice leapt into the air, allowing the blast to continue towards Leon.   
“Oobmon!” Leon managed to blurt, diving to the side.   
ArOobmon barely managed to muster a defence before he was hurled out into the hallway.   
“Oobmon!” Leon yelled, running after his partner. 

MegaKabuterimon flew after them, its herculean body a menacing sight to behold.   
“Get rid of its movement,” Leon said. He looked down at the sword Alice had gave him and gripped it tightly. “I’ll deal with the rest.”   
ArOobmon pushed himself onto his knees and grabbed the bow, aiming carefully. In a flash, he fired the arrow, almost hitting Leon. It impaled one of MegaKabuterimon’s wings, spinning the bug Digimon into a spiral. In a flash, he fired another as MegaKabuterimon was a few meters away, blowing a hole in the other wing.   
MegaKabuterimon crashed to the ground, skidding to a stop in front of them and roared. “Electro Shocker!” It tossed a ball of electricity from two of its four hands, sending the homing attacks towards each of them. 

“I got it!” ArOobmon wrapped himself around Leon.   
Looking up, Leon saw ArOobmon wince in pain as both the attacks hit him. He felt awful for putting his partner in positions like this but they had no choice. Turning down Kayran would only anger the man, to top of the list of other reasons to take the promotion. “Just keep going!” Leon urged, touching his partner’s warm arm through a gap in the armour.   
ArOobmon nodded, getting up and charged at MegaKabuterimon, knocking the other Digimon back into the room. 

MegaKabuterimon easily overpowered the other Digimon, launching him into the air as IceLeomon was blown to pieces by an invisible attack. His data spread outwards, floating for a moment before rushing inwards and forming a Digiegg.   
Leon ran in and dived for one of its legs. If he could take this out, then that left only one leg left. He swiped with the sword but MegaKabuterimon effortlessly kicked him away like a bug. How ironic.   
Two arrows flew from ArOobmon’s direction, impaling both legs as Leon struggled to his feet. 

MegaKabuterimon used two of its four arms, pushing up and away as ArOobmon leapt at it.   
As it sailed through the air, Leon charged towards where it would land. “Now, target practice!”   
“Rapid Fire!” ArOobmon quickly loaded and unloaded arrow after arrow, with little care for aim. They blasted various parts of MegaKabuterimon’s huge body, and other areas besides, until the bug Digimon hit the ground with a defeated thud.   
But it wasn’t over yet. MegaKabuterimon’s horns began to glow. “Horn—”  
Leon slipped the Data Destruction Blade in between its horns and twisted before finally dragging it down the hard exoskeleton with all of the might he could muster. Data flew outwards, greater than any amount he had seen before. It blew him backwards, like a powerful wind as he heard Alice and the man clash again and again. 

Mid-air, Alice Struck his back with her palm, brought her feet into his lower back and grabbed the arm he was using the Laser Saber with. He landed on the floor, defeated as she pried the Saber from his hand, twisting his arm violently in the process.   
He screamed on the floor in pain. “I’ll never tell you anything!”   
Alice chuckled. “I didn’t ask any questions. So, can we skip to me killing you?”   
“Wait, but!”   
Alice’s pager buzzed. Sighing, she tossed the Laser Saber away, cutting the ground nearby in the process, and checked it. “Looks like you got lucky.” Alice tugged harshly, wrenching the arm from its socket and stepping across his body as she headed towards Leon. Behind her, he roared in agony, rolling around on the ground and gripping his arm. 

Leon brushed down his tight-fitting blue trousers. “What’s up?”   
Alice held out her pager. “Turns out that we have to leave now and anyone still alive is to be left that way.” She turned back to him, her voice cool as ice, “If you try anything on the way out, though, I won’t hesitate to disobey this order.”   
“That’s strange timing,” Leon commented. He shrugged. “You okay, Oobmon?”   
The Digimon nodded as orbs flew off him and he turned back into his Rookie form. “Let’s go home and cuddle!”   
Alice muttered, reading the pager again and looking at the man and then the cameras around the room. “Strange timing indeed.” 

* * *

“You should go see the kid, you know?” Conan said, slumped against Aleena’s doorframe.   
Aleena looked up from the book in her hands. It was a child’s history book about The Valiant War. “Why?”   
Conan resisted commenting on the book, he knew already that her schooling had been almost non-existent. The fact she could read even a little was amazing. “He’ll be scared. It’ll be good to see a familiar face.”   
Aleena glanced at Talmon, who was sleeping at the end of her bed. “If I have to.” She sighed, tossing the book onto the floor.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Digimon. The OCs are mine.


End file.
